Blood Moon
by ExiXIII
Summary: Since time immemorial, the Therianthrope tribes and the Undead clans have been locked in an intense conflict with each other. Will the secretive union of two young girls from both sides end their fight and bring peace or make it worse? [Werewolf/Vampire AU]
1. 0 - Prologue

**[ 0 ]**

* * *

Humans, the Therianthropes, and the Undead: the three sapient races that dominated the face of the world of Remnant.

The Therianthropes, known as the masters of the wilderness and the oldest of the three races, they were the ones most attuned to nature, and because of this, they have the unique ability to change into an animal at will. They were also seen by humankind as a benevolent people for they taught man to farm and hunt for their food, to craft basic tools and survive the wilderness, and to use their intelligence for their benefit. They have taught mankind many things that helped them thrive.

The Undead, known as the masters of the night and the arcane, are perhaps the youngest of the three races, but are certainly not the weakest for they have expert control on the magical engine humans refer to as 'dust'. They are feared by humankind for they are predators, hunting in the darkness and stalking the shadows to prey upon weak mortals - be it their flesh or their souls. They are cursed beings, damned to never find respite after death and consume life just to sustain their corrupted ones.

Then there's Humankind. The second of the three races to appear and walk the surface of the planet, humans are strong, wise, and resourceful. After the Therianthropes taught them to survive, their intelligence shone and led them to civilaztion, technology, science, and modernity.

But with power, there always comes a struggle.

The Therianthropes and the Undead have been locked in an intense conflict since time immemorial, their enmity stemming from hatred wrought by the way each side sees humans. The Therianthropes guard the humans against the Undead, who see their enemies as obstacles that hinder them from feeding. Even the humans participated in this battle. Most remained neutral, but some worked alongside either the Therianthropes or the Undead. Some even worked to eliminate or subdue both to become the superior race.

This has been the way for several millennia, but perhaps now is the time for an important change to take place. And the coming change may be spearheaded by two young girls from opposing sides of the battle.


	2. Chapter 1

**[ I ]**

* * *

"There it is, over there! And it's running away!" Weiss pointed at the retreating puma, the fleeing animal limping on its broken leg, yelping with every step it took. There was a large wound in its side that bled profusely, staining its thick, brown coat of fur red with blood. The coppery scent of fresh blood reached Weiss' nostrils and she felt a deep hunger take over her.

She would've lept and bit the animal, if she didn't find its blood tainted.

"It's not going anywhere." Emerald Sustrai, the woman Weiss was sent there with, replied sternly, brow furrowed, red eyes focused. She had her pistol loaded and aimed at the retreating beast, her index finger hovering over the trigger. "Nowhere but the underworld." The gun fired. Pale, green light burst from the barrel of the firearm, blasting a new hole into the side of the creature. Its blood splattered onto the earth and trees, a shocked expression on its feline features as it fell to the ground with a thud. "Still alive, huh?" Emerald mused, a smirk on her face and a dark, mischievous glint in her deep red eyes. "How about you do the honors, Lady Schnee?" She asked, turning to face Weiss, whose hand gripped the hilt of the rapier hanging from her waist.

"Why don't you finish the job, Emerald?" Weiss asked, tilting her head a bit.

"Because I know how you share your father's love for impaling your enemies." The dark-skinned woman stepped aside and gestured invitingly at the bleeding puma on the ground.

"Thank you, Emerald." The heiress replied, a wide smile on her excited face, her eagerness evident in her gait. "I have been itching to sink my blade into flesh for quite some time now."

Weiss approached the creature on the ground. The beast's breathing was heavy and pained, its chest rising and falling irregularly. It lay on a puddle of its own blood, the lifeblood trickling from the wounds it has sustained from Weiss' blade and Emerald's gun. Its hazel eyes looked sunken, and its light fur now dyed with a deep shade of red.

Looking down on the creature, she almost felt sorry for the it. Almost.

"Well, you lost." Weiss pointed her rapier at the animal and held her head high, her gaze low. "What will you do now, Therianthrope?"

The creature snarled, baring its prominent fangs stained red with blood, and changed form. The coat of matted, bloodstained fur that covered its body shrank until it was completely gone, save for the hairs on its arms and legs. Dull, broken claws which were once sharp and lustrous retracted back into its paws, its digits elongating, giving them the appearance of the hands and feet of a human. In the blink of an eye, the puma that lay on the ground took on a new appearance, one that looked more humanoid in form. But, in reality, it was far from being human.

"More of us are coming." The Therianthrope growled and coughed, blood spurting from his mouth and onto the ground, nearly hitting Weiss' lustrous, black, leather boots. "This place is ours."

Weiss found her encounter amusing. The panther that gave her and her associate trouble earlier was now nothing but a helpless victim lying in its own blood. He no longer had his claws or his fangs, and his flesh was dyed red. She just couldn't seem to call him threatening anymore.

"You lost this war before you started, fool." Weiss brought her rapier down onto the Therianthrope, piercing his heart. Blood spurted out violently, bringing a wide grin to Weiss' face. She pushed it deeper, and the Therianthrope's face contorted into all sorts of hideous expressions, until finally, he went slack.

"Satisfied, Weiss?" Emerald approached and placed her hand on the heiress' shoulder.

"Very. Though it would be best to dispose of the body first." Weiss answered and the revolver on the hilt of her unique rapier rotated until the the length of the blade glowed red. With a flick, fire spewed from the point of her weapon, setting the corpse ablaze. The fire made their shadows dance upon the earth, the sounds of crackling fire and the odor of badly-cooked food filling the air. She scrunched her nose in disgust.

"What now?" Emerald asked, turning to look at the heiress, who kept her eyes on the flame, the fire being reflected in her light blue eyes, making her look like she was planning something diabolical. "Hey, Weiss..."

"We ought to leave." Weiss answered, turning on her heel, walking away from the flame with a quick yet regulated pace, her gait graceful and dignified, like all Schnees. "They tend to travel in groups. That fire's a beacon that will lure his friends here. More of them are coming and we'll be outnumbered soon."

"So, we're leaving." Emerald said.

"We don't have anything to do here anymore anyway." Weiss replied. "Unless you want to fight a pack of Therianthropes."

"Leaving. Leaving sounds good."

"We're walking home."

"What?"

"The gate sorcerer's had a rough week. Let him have a break for a while."

"Fine." Emerald answered with a bit of a pout on her face. "But if my legs get tired, you're carrying me."

"I believe you meant the opposite." Weiss laughed.

* * *

Ruby stopped in her tracks all of a sudden when her sensitive nose detected a strange odor.

"Something wrong?" Velvet asked, brown eyes turning to Ruby.

"Nothing." Ruby replied, rearing her head back and raising her nose into the sky. "I can just smell something."

"Something?"

Ruby sniffed around, her sensitive sense of smell picking up on the peculiarly familiar scent of smoke. She turned her head side to side, trying to single out the source of the smell. There was a fire nearby, and by the smell the smoke carried, she can easily say that someone was holding meat over an open flame.

She would've found the smell appetizing if it didn't smell completely horrid.

"Do you smell that?" Velvet asked, her nose twitching as she looked around. Apparently, she's already caught on to the scent as well. "It smells like..."

"Burnt meat?" Ruby finshed Velvet's sentence, her face heating up and turning red ever so slightly. She turned away from her friend to hide her reddening face. She knew that charred odor too well. It smelled like meat left to roast over a flame for an hour too long, just like that time when she was still a little girl and tried out cooking. She failed to keep watch over the meat and ended up searing it, wasting a perfectly good venison. She learned a valuable lesson that day: stick to raw food. Even worse was, the whole of the tribe knew about her childhood culinary catastrophe, and some even made some sort of annoying inside joke from it. "Yeah. And it's coming from over there." She continued, pointing a finger towards to source of the strong odor.

"What could it be? A campfire? Campers?"

"I don't think so."

"How would you know?"

"I can't pick up the scent of humans."

"Alright." Velvet replied, lightly touching Ruby's nose. "I trust your sense of smell."

Ruby scrunched her nose in distaste. The odor was just too unsatisfactory for her now. "I'm going to go over there and check." Ruby said, turning towards the source of the odor, "This place might just go up in flames if someone doesn't get that fire checked."

"I'll stay here and watch your back." Velvet replied and drummed her fingers on the small, wooden box she always kept hanging from her waist.

Ruby nodded in acknowledgment and slowly made her way to the source of the smoke. She made sure that she was extremely careful in heading there as the ground was littered by dried leaves and dead twigs. One wrong move and they snap, alerting whoever or whatever waited at the place where the fire must be at. She relied on years of stealth training and primal instinct, sneaking like she was stalking a deer. Her feet were light, her movement quick, yet she managed to avoid making a single sound.

By the time she got there, Velvet appeared to be a small, dark, shapeless blob in the distance. Ruby thought she saw Velvet wave at her. Her eyesight wasn't as good as her smell, and there were times she got envious of hawks. This was one of those times. She gave a small wave back and an OK sign just for good measure.

The seared odor was definitely stronger now - so strong that it made Ruby's eyes water. But amidst the smoke was another scent masked by the stronger odor of charred flesh: blood. It was faint, but it was definitely there, the metallic tang of blood.

She got on her guard. There might be something horrible lurking on the other side of the bush she hid behind if there was the scent of fresh blood was present. It could have been a predator carrying out the will of Mother Nature, or it could have been a more dangerous entity altogether.

Especially since Ruby can't pick up the scent of any predator she knew.

She turned away from the smoke and gulped in a lungful of fresh air, holding it in because her heightened sense of smell couldn't handle the foul, seared odor. "One... Two..." She counted silently, her hand preparing to move the bush aside so she can pounce on whatever stood on the other side. "Three."

She leaped through the wall of leaves, claws extend, fangs bared, ready for a fight.

There wasn't even anything to fight.

The area was completely empty save for tall, ominous trees with owls perched on the branches and rocks. But there were more peculiar things among the earth: burnt grass, blood splattered onto the trunks of the trees and watering the soil. In the middle of what appeared to be where a fight took place was a pile of ashes, a skeleton lying in the middle of the mound.

It appeared to be fresh, too.

"That's not good..." Ruby muttered to herself in horror, her hands flying to her mouth. "Velvet!"

Rapid footfall sounded from the distance, getting closer with each passing second. Ruby turned her head towards the direction of the sound, just in time for her to see Velvet skillfully jump from behind the bushes, do a somersault mid-air, and land gracefully beside Ruby like a professional.

"What?" Velvet asked and Ruby pointed at the ground in reply. The brunette's eyes followed where Ruby's finger was pointing, and a horrified expression spread across her face when she saw what Ruby wanted her to see. "What...?" She knelt beside the pile of ashes and sifted through the cinders, her expression getting darker and more grim with each passing second she kept her eyes on the remains. "This is definitely one of us. Who, I can't tell." She picked up the skull and dusted it off with her hand, sneezing when she caught a whiff of the ashes. "I think someone might recognize this."

"Hold that thought." Ruby cut in and Velvet assumed her defensive stance: her hand on the box, her knees bent and ready to leap away at a moment's notice. "Do you hear that?"

The long, brown rabbit ears on top of Velvet's head twitched. "Yes. It's coming from over there." She pointed to where the faint sound was coming from. Velvet's brow furrowed, her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed as she bent forward and took a few steps towards the sound, her ears twitching and bending like an ant's antennae feeling around the environment. "It sounds like conversation."

"You can hear them talking?" Ruby asked, still astounded by Velvet's excellent hearing. "What are they saying?"

"I can't make out any words from this distance." Velvet replied and screwed her eyes shut. "It's like they're talking from underwater."

"I'll go check." Ruby suggested and prepared to sprint towards the faint noise. "They might be the guys who did this. If they are, I'm fighting them."

"Ruby, wait." Velvet put her hand on Ruby's shoulder and pulled her back before she can even run. "What if those guys are Undead?"

"I'll fight them!" Ruby answered enthusiastically, her teeth taking on a more pointed form.

"And what if they outnumber you?"

"I'll still fight them!" Ruby, getting impatient, ran off before Velvet could even put her next sentence into words, leaving the brunette hanging.

"Ruby!" Ruby heard Velvet call at the top of her lungs. It was the last thing she heard from the brunette before she bounded through a thicker part of the undergrowth. She ran through the scrub on all fours, skillfully avoiding getting hit by the low-hanging branches and shrubs, though she did get whacked by a bush or two as she made followed the two pairs of fresh tracks on the ground. Whoever she was tracking was getting closer and closer.

The scent of whoever left the tracks became known to her.

Definitely not human.

"Undead." She snarled distastefully, her nose twitching. She finally identified that familiar stench. They were close, too. She took cover within the undergrowth, relying on the thick foliage to conceal her while she watched two young girls make their way past her location. They appeared to be human, but Ruby knew better.

The taller one of the two them had dark skin and dark red eyes, a couple of pistols contained within holsters strapped to the back of her waist. The two long locks descending from her head of mint green hair bounced behind her as she walked in a calm pace. She blended almost seamlessly with the dark background, and she would have if it weren't for the white and olive colors comprising her outfit.

Shorter than the first, the second girl had light blue eyes and pale white skin that matched her pure white hair pulled back in an off-center ponytail held by a silver tiara that gleamed in the moonlight. She was dressed in an outfit that was nearly entirely white, making her stand out against the dark, gloomy background of the forest at night.

Ruby cannot make out more features the girls had as she was too distant from them and that her eyes weren't exactly as sharp as a bird's - another reason she sometimes get envious of the feathered animals.

She just knew that it wouldn't be wise to engage the two girls in combat at that moment.

Ruby just watched them walk away and literally vanish into the shadows.

* * *

**A/N: I know this idea may be a bit cliche, but hey. It never gets old.**

**Alright, another multi-chapter fanfic from me. Fair warning, there might be times in the future in which the writing may seem a bit _off_, but please bear with me as I tend to suffer with longer fanfics. Especially since I keep changing my mind about lots of things or just plain forget some details. Despite this, however, I will try my best to make the next chapters well so you could just enjoy the ride.**


	3. Chapter 2

**[ II ]**

* * *

"Ruby!" Velvet exclaimed and hurriedly ran to the shorter girl, latching onto her in a tight hug as if she just saw her again after several years. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Ruby replied, struggling to break free from Velvet's hug. For a girl with a small stature and a frail, dainty build, she was surprisingly strong. "Put me down!"

Velvet released her hold on Ruby and the shorter girl doubled over, greedily gulping entire lungfuls of air. Aside from letting her hug people tightly, Velvet's grip also managed to squeeze out the air from Ruby's chest. "Are you okay?" The brunette asked with sincere concern in her tone. "So, how did your search go?" She continued, a bit more sarcastically this time. "Find anything interesting?"

Ruby perked up suddenly, mental images of the things she found when she ran away earlier resurfacing in her memory: two Undead girls. Ruby had to report the situation to the tribe's authorities and let everyone know that their blooded enemies may be preparing for an attack. "Yeah, I did, actually. Where's dad?"

"He's in the gathering hall with the elders." Velvet answered, jerking her thumb to the building behind her. "You know that skull I brought back? Apparently, they've already identified who it is." She continued with a lower tone than before. Ruby noticed something different about Velvet's stance, but didn't really pay attention until now. She noticed that the brunette's been moving slower than usual and that her posture's been a bit more slouched, which was strange for a girl who insisted on keeping a straight spine.

"Who?" Ruby asked, feeling the suspense building.

"It was Tukson." Velvet replied, her voice quivering. The brunette turned away from Ruby, but not before the shorter girl caught a glimpse of a teardrop rolling down Velvet's cheek and dropping from her chin to the soil between her feet.

Ruby's heart reached out to the brunette and she placed her hand on Velvet's shoulder comfortingly. She could feel the taller girl shaking a bit. Ruby wasn't as close to Tukson despite their tribe being a relatively small and close-knit one, but she knew that Velvet was. "I'm sorry, Ruby. I just... Your dad's in the gathering hall. I think they're discussing something about the recent casualty." The brunette began to walk away, not making eye contact with Ruby at all. "If you excuse me, I just need some time."

Ruby watched as Velvet shrunk and morphed into a little, brown rabbit that hopped off into the woods. She understood her desire to be left alone. She's went through the same thing in the past. When the rabbit was no longer in sight, she made her way to the gathering hall - the seat of authority in their village, erected in the center of the small community.

The gathering hall was a longhouse made of bamboo bound together by nails and twine, set over a slightly-wider cobblestone foundation. The triangular roof was made of thatch and the awning below it made of the same material and supported by wooden pillars regularly-spaced apart wrapped around the rectangular perimeter of the building. A cobblestone chimney stuck out of the roof and a short staircase hewn from the elevated cobblestone base led from the ground to the gathering hall's oaken double-doors.

Black smoke bellowed from the top of the gathering hall, signifying that a meeting was in session.

She swung open the doors and stepped into the building. Wooden columns supported the high roof, several animal pelts and furs adorning the walls and the floor. Charms made from fangs, beads, small bones, and feathers tied to a string hung from the ceiling, making the place not look so bland. A fire pit burned in the other end of the hall, a group of people sitting around the flame. Everyone abruptly stopped their conversation as their heads all swiveled towards her. Ruby could make out her father's face and the expression on it: surprise, relief, and that 'you-are-_so_-grounded' look merged into one.

"Ruby!" Her father stood and rushed towards her, grabbing her in yet another bear hug. Her father did things better though, as Ruby didn't have the breath knocked out of her lungs. "Velvet told us that you ran off to look for something and I began to assume the worst! Especially since you took a lot of time out there. I thought they got you too. Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Apparently, relief prevailed.

"I'm fine, dad." Ruby replied after her father let her go. "No wounds, see?"

"Then why did you take long out there?" Her father pressed, checking for any signs of physical harm on Ruby's person.

"I just got distracted."

"By what?"

"A deer." Ruby answered and shrugged. "I was hungry."

"Wait, you ate a whole deer?"

"More or less."

"Aha!" Her father happily bellowed, a big grin on his face, and gave her a big pat on the back. "My daughter has a big appetite!" He proudly exclaimed.

"It was just a small one." She muttered under her breath when her father wasn't listening. She didn't want to ruin his proud streak.

"Taiyang!" One of the elders called from the other end of the hall, looking cross. "We are in the middle of a meeting."

"Oh. My apologies." He replied with his head bowed and his gaze down to the floor, not looking anyone, not even Ruby, whom he could have easily stared at while looking down with his height, in the eyes. "Let us continue. Ruby, could you wait outside for a moment? I'm going to be out in a short while." He continued and made his way towards the circle of elders sitting around the fire pit in the far end of the hall.

"Dad, I have to tell you something." Ruby spoke up as her father continued his stride towards the gathering of village elders.

"It can wait, Ruby."

"I found something in the forest."

"You can show me later."

"Dad, I found two of the Undead near the outskirts." Ruby reported and Taiyang abruptly broke stride. The other elders and people of authority gazed at her, waiting for her to say more. "And they looked like they were just leaving when I found them."

"You found Undead? Two of them?" One of the elders spoke up in what sounded like shock to her.

"Are you sure you're not hurt?" Taiyang asked, inspecting Ruby with a scrutinizing gaze, his brow furrowed, his lips pursed as he did so.

"I didn't even fight them." Ruby replied, feeling a bit more comfortable when her father's stare left her. "I just saw them and then they disappeared."

"This is serious..." Taiyang mused as he rubbed his stubbly chin. He grabbed Ruby's shoulders and held her at arm's length. "The fact that you saw them means that they're encroaching on our territories again. You have to tell us everything you saw and heard, starting from when you first detected them to when they vanished, understand?" Ruby nodded. "I knew I could count on you."

He guided her to the fire pit and invited her to sit. He sat beside her and put his big hand on her shoulder. Ruby knew that he knew that she gets nervous around the village elders, and she appreciated her father's small yet comforting gesture at that situation.

"Thank you for coming, Ruby." One of the elders greeted, a positive yet dark tone in his voice. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess."

"Well?" Another of the elders demanded, shadows dancing on his angular features, giving him a menacing look. Taiyang squeezed her shoulder gently - a sign of reassurance.

Ruby breathed deeply and started talking.

"Well, Velvet picked up the sound of conversation not far from where we found the ash pile." Ruby told the story from memory, flashing back to that moment when Velvet's ears twitched when she said she heard something. "And then I just saw tracks on the ground and I followed them."

"You were near Tukson's remains when Velvet heard them?" Another of the elders asked, her features a bit gentler than the first. "And you found tracks close by? That means that it was the Undead who were responsible for Tukson's death. Please continue."

"Alright. So, anyway, I was running through the undergrowth, dodging bushes like a boss," Ruby continued, lying a bit about evading the bushes even though she can still feel the burn of the leaves and twigs giving her a good whack. She just didn't want to embarass herself in front of people high up in the heirarchy. "And then I found them just walking away. After that, they just... _disappeared._"

"Can you describe them?"

"Well, I could see the one of them well, but the other one was a pale girl who had white hair." She answered, bringing up the most prominent feature of one of the Undead she spotted earlier. "Yeah. White hair and a bossy, stuck-up walk."

Most of the elders looked unnerved. Even Taiyang had a distressed look on his face, even though he was so obviously trying to keep himself together.

"White hair?" Taiyang asked and Ruby nodded in reply. "She was probably a noble."

"How can you tell?" One of the elders asked scrutinizingly.

"White hair is like a status symbol among the Undead." Taiyang answered.

"Nobility. Probably a vampire, too." Another elder added.

"Is that all, Ruby?" The elder with the angular features and the creepy face asked. "Have you nothing else to tell us?"

"That's all."

"Thank you for telling us this, Ruby." Her father remarked and lightly patted her shoulder. "You could wait outside. Knowing this means that we still have much to talk about."

"Okay. I'll, uh, take my leave now." Ruby said and stood, making for the doorway as soon as she was up. "Bye." She waved her hand at her father and he waved back.

"Now," Taiyang continued when Ruby was leaving the hall, still in earshot, "about the Undead..."

She shut the gathering hall's oaken double doors behind her and headed back for her home to think about the events that transpired earlier.

* * *

"You look like you had fun last night." Yang commented on the huge, satisfied grin on the heiress' face when she walked into the manor. "Let me guess. Judging by that look on your face and the blood on your rapier, I'd say you either killed a Therianthrope or stabbed another human."

"It was a Therianthrope." Emerald answered in Weiss' stead. "A puma."

"Must've been a _wild_ fight." Yang replied, smirking a bit at her own joke. She managed to elicit the reaction she wanted: Weiss rolling her eyes in exasperation. That was where her fun came from most of the time. "Also, what's with the exhaustion? You look like you ran a marathon." She continued, noting the sweat rolling down from the two girls' foreheads and the energy-starved expression on Emerald's face.

"We walked home." Weiss answered gleefully. Yang noticed that the heiress was less sweatier than the dark-skinned wight. "It's a great form of exercise. Especially for Emerald here." She added with a smirk on her face and an eyebrow slightly cocked.

"She means that I had to carry her home." Emerald answered through gritted teeth. Now that Weiss has mentioned it, Yang just noticed that Emerald looked like the more exhausted one: forehead wet with sweat, knees buckling, panting heavily, and breathing like she was going to inhale every last bit of oxygen in the room. "And she isn't light, let me tell you that."

"Are you implying something?" Weiss replied pointedly, taking offense at Emerald's statement.

"No wonder you two took so much time to get home." Yang cut in, putting her arms behind her head. "I thought you two died. Well, you're already technically dead, but you know what I mean." She added. "Why didn't you just get Neo to bring you two back here?"

"Weiss wanted to give Neo a break." Emerald answered with a hissing breath, staring contemptuously at the heiress who was just smirking proudly in response to the wight's heavy stare. "If you ask me, she just wanted to torture me."

"Well, if you two wanted to get home quicker, you could've just summoned me." Yang answered and placed her left hand on her right wrist. She twisted it to the left a bit and pulled it out with a pop. "I could've given you a _hand._" She joked, waggling her eyebrows, her grin slowly parting. At least she got to see Weiss roll her eyes again accompanied with a long-suffering sigh.

"Put that back, it's disturbing." Emerald commented, her lip curled. "And it's not like Neo's gonna let you out." Emerald added and took in a lungful of air. "Everyone knows she's kind of... _possessive_ and _will_ teleport to your location and drag you back here if you go out."

"I still don't understand why she does that." Yang scratched her head. Neopolitan was known for her habit of keeping an eye on Yang and no one knew exactly why. Especially since the girl didn't talk at all.

"I don't even know why mom gave you _that_ piece of your brain." Weiss said exasperatedly, her eyes screwed shut and her lips in a thin line. She was rubbing her temples in annoyance. That bliss she felt after killing a Therianthrope was all but gone now that her ears were being assaulted by Yang's horrible puns again.

"It's because your mom had such a good..." Yang gave the back of her head a small tap and her eye popped out of its socket, falling into her hand. "_Eye_ for body parts!"

"I'm gonna throw up." Emerald said, holding back the vomit in her throat threatening to break out and made a break for the bathroom so she could expel her lunch.

"Wow. Sheesh. Tough crowd." Yang said with mock bitterness as she screwed her hand back into her wrist and put her eyeball back in its socket. She looked to Weiss, who looked a bit green. "So, what're you doing next?"

"I'm going to bed." Weiss replied exasperatingly as she began to make her way upstairs.

"Alright. G'night, princess! Or should I say morning?" Yang waved at the heiress ascending the steps of the staircase. "Anyway, don't let the nightmares - or daymares - get'cha!"

Weiss made her way into her room on the third story of the manor and locked the door behind her. She drew the heavy, black curtains shut, preventing the light of the rising sun from spilling into her room. She wouldn't want to be reduced to ashes in her sleep. She changed into something more comfortable and dropped onto the soft and luxurious bed, sinking into the mattress as she lay still. "I swear, what am I going to do with that walking heap of scrapped body parts?" She muttered, the puns that Yang, the creature whom her mother modeled after the work of Dr. Frankenstein, made earlier still fresh in her head. Especially when she just removed her eyeball and put it back like it was nothing.

That was traumatizing.

Before she even knew it, her eyes drooped shut and she fell asleep.

A peculiar wolf with jet-black fur streaked with red highlights played in her dreams.

* * *

**A/N: I'm just going to clear something up here. Just because I said "Vampire/Werewolf" up there in the description, doesn't mean that it's going to focus solely on those creatures. No, there will be different types of Undead creatures and not all Therianthropes are werewolves. So, there. Still, we're just beginning so I'm going to give a bit of background on the characters and the factions. Worry not, things will start getting shippy in the near future. So, until then.**


	4. Chapter 3

**[ III ]**

* * *

Ruby hated night duty.

Her father and the council of elders came to a decision last night, and that was to station teams of two in certain areas around the village's outskirts when the night falls. They were to act as the watchers of the village who will warn the people if they spot the Undead advancing in on their territories. Ruby thought the idea was great. That is, until she was the among the first to be assigned by her father.

She couldn't say no. She didn't want to disappoint her dad who expected a lot about her.

"Ruby, are you alright?" Blake, the girl she was assigned with, asked. She saw two fuzzy images of Blake and it took a bit of effort on her end to fight away the weariness weighing her down. Her double vision stabilized and came together to form one clear image - the cat-eared girl staring at her with golden eyes that reflected the light from the campfire they lit. Blake sat on a rock opposite from her, watching her intently.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine." Ruby answered and yawned deeply, stretching her arms above her head. It was satisfying somehow; feeling her muscle fibers and joints stretch. "Just sleepy, is all."

"Then you better get some sleep." Blake suggested, leaning forward a bit. Shadows danced upon Blake's features, the display created by the firelight mesmerizing. Or to her, at least. Weariness made her find most anything hypnotic. "I'll watch over you while you do."

"No, no." Ruby insisted, holding back a yawn. "I'm fine now. Fine..." Her head bobbed and her heavy eyelids drooped closed as she drifted off to sleep for a spell. Her sight blurred, unclear images dancing in her field of vision, and she felt like she was just floating in a body of water.

"You seriously need to sleep." Blake replied, jolting Ruby out of her micro-sleep.

"No." Ruby replied stubbornly, struggling to keep herself stable despite her entire body's desire to just collapse on the leaf-covered ground and fall asleep, not to wake until the sun's rays burn through her eyelids. She still had a duty to perform.

A soft humming sounded, the quiet melody slow and calm. It was oddly tranquilizing. "I already said it..." She continued, trying to keep herself awake. The song that now sounded a bit louder, almost annoyingly so - like it was trying its hardest to make her lay down and fall asleep somewhere comfortable, filled Ruby's ears. Consciousness struggled to slip from her, but she wouldn't allow that. "I'm not... going... to sleep..."

The last thing she remembered before blacking out was crashing onto a pile of leaves.

"Finally, she's asleep." Said Blake, her voice followed by the soft, muffled sound of feet hitting the soft ground. The sound of leaves crunching was also audible. Someone just put their weight on the sea of dead leaves. "Good night, Ruby."

"Cheater..."

* * *

"Yo, princess!" Yang called as they made their way to their destination. Leaves crumbled and twigs snapped under her feet as she walked at a nonchalant pace, making crunching and snapping noises that accompanied every step she made. She would've been concerned about making such noise around people who could hear a butterfly's wingbeat if she wasn't physically strong enough to send one of them flying with a well-placed punch. "Tell me again what we're doing here."

"To pass the time." Weiss answered, closely inspecting her rapier as she walked, turning the silver blade in her hands. She just cleaned the sword, revealing its beautiful luster and making the markings engraved into the blade even more visible. It looked beautiful, but she wouldn't mind having it covered with the blood of another Theriathrope. "And to carry out a mission. We're here to scout ahead, remember? We could also turn this into a little hunting game."

With one quick strike, she brought her rapier down on a field mouse scampering about. It didn't turn to a Therianthrope, the way they always do when they're killed in their animal forms. She was a bit disappointed at that. "Just a regular one... Be careful. They can be anywhere, taking any form." She fished a cloth from a pouch she had hanging from her waist and wiped the blood off the tip of the blade. She wanted it clean for when she had to execute a Therianthrope.

"Yeah, but just the two of us?" Yang asked, holding her hands behind her head. "We might get outnumbered out here, especially now that we're on their grounds. Couldn't we at least bring Emerald along for backup? It'd be nice to have someone who can hit from a distance."

"I don't think she'd want to be near you after last night's episode..." Weiss shuddered, remembering the time Yang's eyeball just popped out of her skull. Emerald looked greener than her own hair when she ran away. Others even say that she passed out in the bathroom.

"What? It wasn't that bad."

"Yang, it was disgusting."

"Well, I didn't think she didn't have the _stomach_ for it!" Yang laughed out loud, clutching her abdomen. Weiss just looked at her like she was crazy, seemingly missing the pun. "It'd sound better if I could just pull my stomach out." Yang explained, pointing to the stitch in the side of her abdomen.

"Please don't." Weiss answered, curling her lip. She would just faint on the spot if Yang does manage to pull out one of her internal organs - much worse if it's a set up for a pun - but not before she loses her lunch. She'll just lie on a pool of her own vomit, and that prospect somehow sounded less disgusting than watching her partner show her viscera.

"What if I-"

"Shush." Weiss quickly put her hand over Yang's mouth. She assumed her stance, rapier ready to strike, legs ready to retreat. Whichever works best for whatever situation they may face. "You see that?" She whispered, pointing to a faint light in the distance. Yang nodded. "That's a fire. Do you think they're who we think they are?" Yang nodded again. "Ready for a fight?"

Yang cracked her knuckles and popped the vertebrae in her neck. "That sound like an answer?"

"Let's go." Weiss nodded and they quickened their pace towards the fire, ready to attack and kill whatever was waiting for them there.

* * *

_Ruby..._ A familiar, ethereal, feminine voice called. It sounded like a chime: melodic, beautiful, calming. Ruby's head swiveled, trying to locate the source of the voice.

_Ruby... _The voice called again and Ruby turned around. She saw a tall figure in a white robe, the hood covering her face. Rose petals were suspended in the air around her, moved by a gentle, unfelt breeze.

_Ruby... _Captivated, Ruby approached the figure. There was just something about this individual that made her feel at peace somehow.

Ruby approached the hooded figure and the one in the white robe turned to face her. She couldn't see the figure's face, nor make out any definite features. Just a blank, white slate in place of a face. The figure gently placed her hands on Ruby's shoulders, gently nudging her. _Ruby, it's time to wake up._ The voice called again, but Ruby didn't want to wake up. She felt tranquil there. She never wanted to leave. She wanted to stay there, even if it meant never waking up again.

_Ruby, wake up..._ The voice repeated, the nudging from the figure gradually getting stronger. _Ruby..._

"Ruby!"

Ruby snapped awake to find a pair of hands on her shoulders and a shadowed figure standing over her, golden eyes staring into hers. It was Blake. The fire they lit was snuffed out and not even a single ember remained glowing red-orange. Their zone was drowned in total darkness. "Blake, what?"

The cat girl pressed her finger onto Ruby's lips, shushing her. "They're here." She said, her voice barely higher than a whisper. "They're close. I can hear them."

Ruby raised her nose and took a whiff of the air. The scent of death hung heavy in the atmosphere and the sound of leaves crackling barely audible, but it was there. And it seemed as if the noise was headed in their direction. Ruby stood up gently, being careful not to make the pile of leaves she was lying on rustle. That might alert the Undead to their presence. "Blake, you ready to fight?" The cat girl nodded and her golden eyes, the only parts of Blake that she can see in the darkness, went lower, taking on a more rounded shape. They looked like two orbs hovering closely together a short distance above the ground. Blake has assumed her feline form. Without making a single noise, the cat ran off.

Ruby knew what Blake was planning and she decided to go with it.

With one mental command, fur began to sprout out all over her form, her claws and fangs extending from her digits and gums. Her snout elongated and so did her ears as she went down to stand on all fours. In a short period of time, the Ruby who stood before on two legs as a humanoid now stood on four legs as a wolf. She ran towards the direction opposite to where Blake went, preparing for the famous tactic Blake was known for executing all the time.

Approaching from both sides.

Two girls went into their small, abandoned encampment. One of them was tall with blonde hair with fair skin that stitches of all shapes and sizes scattered all over her person, making her look like she was just a jumble of body parts put together. The other was someone Ruby recognized. White hair in a side ponytail secured by a tiara, pale skin that stood out against the dark background, and startling, light blue eyes that looked like they could give a piercing glare and stare into someone's very soul.

It was that girl she saw the night before.

"I could swear they were here." The shorter girl said and looked around, her brow furrowed, her eyebrow raised. "They were just here and... these ashes are still fresh."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby saw Blake's reflective irises bobbing up and down - the signal for her to begin their attack. "Can you hear that?" The taller blonde asked confusedly, lilac eyes darting left and right, fists clenching, stance preparing for a fight. "It sounded like something was..."

Before the blonde could finish her sentence, Blake jumped out from the undergrowth in the form of a black cat. A blue flame lit the tip of her tail and balls of ghostly fire floated around her as she moved, following her everywhere she went. She pounced on the white-haired one and set the tip of the Undead's ponytail on fire using her burning tail. The white-haired one screeched and the blonde puched Blake, sending her flying. "You're not getting away!" The blonde yelled and gave chase to Blake while the other one was frantically trying to extinguish the fire consuming her hair.

Ruby saw their separation as a chance for a divide-and-conquer strategy.

She leapt out of her cover of leaves, claws extended and fangs bared, ready to maul the white-haired girl apart. She landed a few feet away from the girl, whose icy gaze was now transfixed on her. She snarled and the Undead girl laughed, her hand moving to the hilt of her weapon. "You think you, a little mutt, could defeat me?" Ruby growled as menacingly as she could, trying to intimidate the girl, saving the fighting as a last resort if the Undead weren't able to take a hint and retreat.

"Is that all you're going to do?" The white-haired girl challenged, her rapier pointed at Ruby. "Snarl at me? If that's so, then I'll just end you before things get boring!"

Ruby raised her snout to howl, but before she could do so, a loud crackling sound came from behind the Undead girl she faced. The white-haired girl's expression went slack, wide-eyed and mouth hanging open as she turned around. Ruby saw the carnage going on. The trees and bushes were alight with intense blue flames, two sillhouettes duelling in the middle of the blaze. One of them was the blonde girl, and the other was... something else.

It was tall, almost as tall as the blonde, its fur jet black and its claws menacingly long and sharp. It stood on two legs, its entire body slender and feminine yet well-built and toned. Two large, pointy ears stuck out of its head and an intense blue flame burned brightly at the tip of its tail protruding from its back. Ghostly balls of fire floated around it, approaching the blonde and setting everything on their path on fire. The creature was Blake, but now she had assumed her true, Therianthropic form.

Ruby couldn't see twhat was happening behind the raging wall of flames, but she could hear the sounds of the intense battle going on behind it. Roars and screams sounded from within the fire, trees falling and collapsing as the heat consumed them. "Take this!" The voice of the blonde yelled, the scream followed by frantic footsteps and the noise of leaves crackling under heavy feet. A log emerged from the wall of flames, headed for the white-haired Undead Ruby faced.

It hit.

An invisible barrier around the Undead broke and fell apart, and the girl fell to her knees unconscious.

This was Ruby's perfect opportunity.

She approached the fainted girl, teeth bared and ready to tear apart her throat.

But strangely enough, she found that she couldn't do it.

She stared into the girl's fainted face and more subtle details came into view: the scar over her eye or that somehow-adorable look on her unconscious face. Blood dripped from her forehead and her nose. Ruby couldn't bring herself to kill the Undead, even if they were enemies. It was against her honor to kill a helpless, fainted girl.

She decided that she'll instead wait for her to recover before she tries to kill her.

Ruby clamped her jaw down on the collar of the Undead's top and dragged her to a secret spot away from the scene, away from the battle going on within the raging, blue flames.

She just hoped Blake would be alright.

* * *

One well-placed punch to the beast's face was all it took to get her a victory.

The creature snarled and shrunk, taking the form of a little, black cat and ran away, burning tail between its legs. "What?" Yang yelled after the retreating Therianthrope, "is that all you got?!"

The intense, blue fire crackled and a tree branch fell from the canopy, the burning piece of wood and bark nearly hitting Yang over the head. "I have to get out of here." She decided and ran towards the wall of flame, body tucked in, head bowed down. She charged through the fire, the searing heat making her feel like she's in an oven, being cooked to perfection like a roast turkey.

Yang just laughed at that thought. She was already perfect and smoking hot.

Or at least, she thought she was.

"Princess!" She yelled after she burst through the flames, seemingly unscathed. There was nothing in that area but dead leaves and dry twigs. "Hey, princess!" She looked around, scanning the ground for anything that might indicate what had happened while she was busy with the big cat. "Weiss! Where are you?"

She found a trail on the ground, seemingly made by something dragging something big. A burning log lay on the start of the trail, a few drops of blood gleaming in the fire of the burning wood. Her hand flew to her mouth as she stared wide-eyed at the scene. It could only have meant the worst.

"I am _so_ double-dead."

* * *

**A/N: Blake was actually based off a Bakeneko, a Japanese Yokai which is believed to originate from a cat. That explains all the fire and stuff.**


	5. Chapter 4

**[ IV ]**

* * *

It was a good thing Ruby always brought bandages with her wherever she went.

Treating the wound on the Undead girl's head was a cinch with the knowledge Velvet had shared with her years ago. She was just unsure of how the girl got the wound when the log didn't even make contact with her, just that blue barrier that broke apart, but it seemed that her barrier also had an effect on her body. Ruby just didn't know exactly why the Undead was harmed physically since she didn't know much about magic other than the fact that it can do things most people can't.

She knelt beside the unconscious girl and admired her handiwork. She wasn't as good as Velvet was when it came to first aid, but she did a pretty decent job in stopping the Undead girl's forehead from bleeding - all the while questioning why they even needed blood in the first place if they were already dead. She just assumed that it may be as valuable to them as it was to the living, so she quickly dressed the injury, but not before panicking about the amount of blood.

Red soaked through the bandages quickly and Ruby placed the girl's head on her lap. She pressed her fingers down on the bandages to apply pressure, her other hand wiping away the trails blood cascading down the girl's face. The white-haired girl looked serene somehow. Peaceful, even though she was knocked out cold by a flying log. Now that Ruby was closer, she noticed more things about the girl like the scar running over her left eye or her scent. She carried the signature odor of the Undead, but there were also wonderful fragrances masking the stench of undeath. Hers was a plethora of aromas pleasing to the nose. Ruby just had to hold herself back or she would've had her nose pressed to the girl's cheek.

"What am I going to do with you?" She asked herself as she continued pressing down on the bandages, waiting for the bleeding to slow to a trickle. "I could tear your throat out right now, but..."

The girl stirred and her eyelids slowly parted, revealing those ice-cold, light blue eyes. Her irises moved up and Ruby made direct eye contact with the girl. Her eyes suddenly widened as if she was on alert and her entire body, which was slack a few moments ago, tensed up all of a sudden. "Hi." Ruby greeted, putting on the best smile she can manage in front of a member of the clans her people have been in enmity with for a long time.

The girl screamed and struggled to get up. "No, no, wait!" Ruby said loudly, her voice combating that of the Undead girl's. "You've got a wound on your head and I still have to apply pressure! Lie still!"

With that, the girl stopped struggling, yet her eyes continued staring at Ruby warily, as if she were on her guard, prepared to retaliate if Ruby attacks her. She knew that look, she has seen it in a lot of animals who were unfortunate enough to be her prey too many times. But the girl was neither an animal nor was she prey. Not in her current state, at least. "A wound?" The girl asked, eyebrow cocked, and Ruby nodded in response.

"You won't be able to feel the pain because I treated it with a little something first. No, it won't kill you." Ruby explained, pressing down a bit firmer on the bandages. "I don't even know how you got a wound from a log that didn't even hit you or why you need blood if you're already dead in the first place."

"I wasn't quick enough. The barrier wasn't done casting. It was enough to block the log, but an incomplete barrier has consequences." The white-haired girl explained, her eyes not meeting Ruby's. "Wait a minute. Why am I explaining all of this to you? Who are you?" She continued, a renewed fervor sparkling in her eyes and seeping into her rising voice. "And where am I?"

"Remember that wolf from earlier?" The girl nodded. "Yeah, that was me." Ruby replied and looked around. Over them lay a dome made of rough stone, stalactites hanging overhead. Puddles lay beneath the stone spikes dripping ice-cold water, the sound of dripping water oddly rhythmic. An opening lay at the end of the chamber, a small and narrow view of the nocturnal landscape just beyond the exit. "And we're in a cave a bit far from where the fight happened. I can't exactly tend to your wounds while there's a fire raging behind me."

"You're a Therianthrope?!" The girl asked in alarm and tensed up. Ruby just nodded in response and pressed down firmer on the girl's head to establish that she wants her to just lie down. "What? Are you about to strike me down? Unacceptable!"

"I said lie down!" Ruby commanded, applying more and more pressure as the girl struggled more. "Just wait until I allow you to stand! You've got a head injury and need treatment! And if I wanted to put you down, then I already would have while you were out cold!"

The girl stopped her squirming and regarded Ruby with a scrutinizing and questioning gaze. "Just wait until I say it's okay for you to stand, okay?" She added with a gentler voice, lifting her fingers from the bandage a bit so as to not press down on it as hard. "Just a few minutes more and your bleeding would lessen. Then we can go back to tearing each other apart if you'd like."

The girl stayed silent, her eyes not meeting Ruby's. "Why are you doing this?" She asked, her eyebrow raised questioningly. "I'm Undead. You're a Therianthrope. Why are you helping me out if you could be ending my existence right now?"

"I can't bring myself to kill someone who's in a bad state. It's unfair."

"There is nothing fair in war."

"That's what they all say, but I refuse to believe that."

"Why so?"

"Because it just doesn't sound right."

The girl pursed her lip, her brow furrowed as if in deep thought. "I asked you earlier as to who you are," she began, her icy, blue eyes meeting Ruby's. "But I still don't know your name."

"Why should I tell you my name? I don't trust you."

"Fine. Then I'll tell you my name first. It's Weiss."

"Ruby." Ruby answered and released the pressure she put over the girl's wound. The Undead girl sat up, rubbing the back of her head. "I think that's okay now. You could remove it if you'd like."

"I'd rather keep it on until later." She got up shakily, visibly losing her balance.

"Just wait it out, Weiss. The dizziness will disappear eventually." Ruby advised, getting on her own feet and supporting the disoriented, out-of-balance Undead girl.

What happened next was something Ruby did not expect and would not even expect. Not for another million years.

Weiss took her cheek in one hand, the Undead's flesh cold against hers, and pressed her lips to Ruby's cheek. The contact didn't last long - it was as quick as a mere peck yet it was soft and gentle. Even though it was short-lived, it was enough to send blood rushing to Ruby's face.

She was sure her cheeks were redder than the bandage on Weiss' head.

"Wh-wh-wha... what?" Ruby stuttered. She found it difficult to string words together into sentences, much less spit out coherent words with ease. The kiss Weiss gave her disoriented her. She was confused. Why would an Undead kiss her? Why would a _girl_ kiss her? She didn't understand those, but she sure was flustered because of the contact.

"Don't get any ideas. That's how my people give our thanks."

"Weiss!" A voice called from outside the cavern. It was distant yet oddly familiar. "Where are you?"

"Yang?" Weiss turned to Ruby, a concerned expression etched all over her face. "I want you to stay here. If she finds you, she'll kill you." Ruby nodded. "Wait until blue light flashes outside the cavern before you come out."

"O-okay." Ruby replied and swallowed a lump in her throat. "Aren't you... aren't you going to kill me or even fight me?"

"As much as I would love to see my rapier sticking through your abdomen, I won't kill you. I owe you something for tending to my wounds." Weiss replied, releasing the grip she had on the hilt of her sword. "Also for sharing with me your ideology." She muttered, but Ruby caught that. It was an advantage to have a predator's sense of hearing in situations like these, but Velvet's was still better. "Maybe next time."

"So, no go?"

"No go."

"Weiss, hey! Please don't be dead for real. Your parents are going to kill me and I mean _kill _me!"

Weiss gestured for Ruby to lay low and hide and turned and made her way to the mouth of the cave, her heels clacking on the stone floor. "Yang!" She called once she stood outside the cave. "I'm right here!"

Footsteps sounded. Heavy feet running on a sea of dead leaves and twigs. "Weiss!" The other voice, Yang, called. "So glad you're still with us." Ruby barely saw the taller figure from her spot inside the cavern, but she could make out a wild mane of golden hair just beyond the cave's mouth. "Where were you and what happened to your head?" She listened in on the conversation, waiting for the blue light Weiss spoke of.

"That log you threw hit me."

"Sorry."

"Also, I killed that other Therianthrope. Its corpse now lies inside this cave."

"Well, I guess that's enough bloodshed for tonight."

"Indeed. We should get back before they start worrying about us and send reinforcements."

"Why do you suddenly sound so concerned about backup?"

"I don't want the clan to waste our people here. It's better if we return right now."

"Alright. I'll go call Neo. Ah! She's already here."

"Neo, take us home, please." Weiss requested, her voice polite and laced with what sounded like fear. She must have been talking to someone who had power.

"Hey, watch it! Not so close!" Yang exclaimed angrily.

Blue light flashed beyond the mouth of the cavern. After that, silence. Ruby cautiously stepped out of her hiding place, looking left and right to check for any threats beyond the cave after she was out of the enclosed space. She sighed in relief. Ruby knew that Weiss was lying about everything. Why she did so, Ruby couldn't understand. Maybe it was because she wanted to leave because she was injured or maybe because she wanted to protect Ruby.

Ruby would never know.

Her hand drifted to her cheek, the one the Undead kissed. Her cheeks were still warm, but that spot where Weiss' lips touched her flesh was cold in comparison.

Ruby knew what she was thinking of was insane.

But she wanted to see Weiss again.

* * *

Ruby was once again met by a tight hug.

This time, it was from not one, but two people.

"Ruby!" Blake exclaimed in glee and ran to her, taking her in a hug when she was close enough. Taiyang followed, his big, muscular arms taking both of them and lifting them into the air with ease like they weighed nothing. Knowing her father, lifting two people their size was child's play for him.

"Are you okay?" Her dad asked when Blake released her grip on Ruby after her dad put them both down. "I heard from Blake that you encountered the Undead. You were nowhere in sight when Blake tried to look for you and I began to fear the worst!"

"I'm fine, dad. The Undead just ran away." Ruby said, recalling Weiss and that little scene in the cavern. Her foot shifted nervously. She wasn't ready to tell anyone in the tribe that an Undead kissed her - much less tell anyone that she actually saved one's undeath.

"Glad to hear that!" He boomed and gave her a big pat on the back.

"They ran away, huh?" Blake commented, nervously shuffling about and avoiding making eye contact. "What cowards."

"Still, the fact that they sent two towards this direction does not mean well." Taiyang continued, his brow furrowed and his lips pursed. "They might be preparing for an attack." He continued grimly.

"I don't think that they'll be doing that soon." Ruby cut in, remembering the conversation she overheard earlier. Weiss didn't want any more of the Undead forces walking in on Therianthrope territory. "I heard them talking between themselves about postponing their attacks."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

"But we must still brace ourselves." Her father replied, stroking his chin. "They could strike at any moment. Especially now they know that you and Blake defeated them."

"Hah, yeah..." Both Ruby and Blake nervously responded in unison.

"We're going to have to tighten our defenses and check our territories." Taiyang said and looked up to the canopies of the trees in and around the village. "Qrow! Raven! Take to the skies and scout ahead! There might be others going towards us right now!"

Two loud caws sounded from the treetops and two black birds took off into the night. Ruby could barely see the birds, but they were there. They were hard to see since their black feathers blended nicely with the dark nocturnal skies, which made them perfect for the job.

Her father made his way to the village's gathering hall. "Call the council! We have things to discuss." He turned to Ruby and Blake, a concerned yet relieved look on his face. "In the meantime, you girls get some rest. You deserve it." With that, he headed for the hall without looking back.

"Well, I'm going to go get some sleep." Ruby told Blake and headed toward her and her father's home. "I'm beat."

"Good night, Ruby." Blake replied and got on all fours, changing into a black cat in the blink of an eye. "I'm going to the forest to think for a while." She took off nimbly, vanishing into the undergrowth.

Ruby made her way into her home and collapsed into her bed as soon as she could. She drifted off to sleep as soon as she landed on the soft mattress, not even bothering to change into her night clothes.

And in her sleep, she dreamt of a certain white-haired girl.

It was strange, yet it was nice.

* * *

**A/N: WHITE ROSE *convulses*  
**

**Also, thanks for the follows, guys! 60+ now. Thanks for taking the time to read and enjoy this, and I hope you'll like the future chapters!**


	6. Chapter 5

**[ V ]**

* * *

Blake was in deep thought.

She sat on a rock in the middle of a clearing surrounded by bamboos stretching into the sky. That place was her special little retreat, a thinking place of sorts. It was there where her mind was most relaxed and it was there where she conducted most of her soul-searching.

And as of that moment, the biggest thing in her mind was the blonde Undead she fought earlier.

She felt a strange sensation while she was fighting against the blonde. It was almost as if she knew that girl, like she met her some time in the pa. Something inside her was nagging at her that she recognized that Undead, even though it was just their first meeting. It could have been Déjà Vu, but Blake wasn't so sure of that. She was certain that there was something in her history that related to the blonde girl.

What it was, she wasn't sure of. She can't even find herself to come to an acceptable conclusion.

"_You wanna fight, kitty-cat?_" The voice of the blonde rang in Blake's head when the scene from earlier resurfaced in her mind: blue fires surrounding them, every bit of green consumed by hot, bright flames. The blonde stood tall before Blake in her battle stance, her fists clenched, her body positioned just so that she can deliver powerful punches. Her golden hair gleamed in the firelight and it even appeared to be on fire. "_I've got two fists right here and they've got your name on it! Whatever your name is._"

"_It's Blake._" Blake remembered replying to the blonde's query in a voice that sounded like a human's voice and a cat's growl mixed together. "_And I will carve it into your skin if you forget._" Her claws extended from her fingers attached to a hand that looked like a cross between a human hand and a cat's paw.

"_Blake, huh?_" The blonde replied with a smirk as she cracked her knuckles. Her lilac eyes turned red, her irises reflecting the light of the blue flame while appearing to burn with an intense flame of their own. "Well, you should at least know mine, then. I'm Yang."

"_Enough banter!_" Blake charged at the blonde, ready to tear her to shreds. The blonde did likewise and rushed at Blake, fist aimed at her head.

After that, they exchanged swipes and punches, expertly evading each other's attacks.

Until the blonde landed a punch on Blake's face.

She retreated after that.

And now, she found herself thinking about the blonde and why she was oddly familiar to her even if they haven't met beforehand.

"You look like something's troubling you." A voice sounded from the woods. Blake's head swiveled to the source of the sound and found the bushes rustling ominously. She put her hand on the hilt of her sword, ready to cut down anything that might pop out of the undergrowth. A figure stepped into the moonlight, the silver light illuminating her features - most noticeably the rabbit ears sticking out the top of the figure's head. "Thinking about something?" Velvet continued as she made her way towards Blake.

"It was nothing important, really." Blake answered, her grip on the hilt of her blade relaxing. Velvet was a friendly face and Blake really didn't have a reason to strike her down. "Just... thinking about what happened earlier."

"They trespass more often these times." Velvet replied, her eyes moving up and down Blake's person. "Did they hurt you?" Her eyes went wide and she froze in her place, her eyebrows raised as she kept her gaze on Blake's face. "What happened to your cheek?"

"It got punched." Blake explained, her finger running over the bruise on her cheek. She noticed that the swelled spot was greatly discolored when she took the time to look at a mirror earlier that night after Ruby's father called a meeting. "And it still hurts."

"Do you need ice for that?" Velvet offered, rummaging in her box.

"Thanks, but I'm fine."

"No you're not."

"I am."

"It just needs a cold compress."

"Maybe later. It still hurts when I touch it."

"You should at least get some rest." Velvet insisted, her cheeks puffing up.

"After I'm done here." Blake answered, her gaze returning to the shattered moon that hung in the dark night sky dotted by a multitude of stars. "You should rest, too. I'm going back to the village soon. Just please give me a bit of time with my thoughts."

"Alright." Velvet said and morphed into her smaller rabbit form. "Just get some sleep soon. You look like a wreck." She hopped into the undergrowth, vanishing from sight.

Blake just stared at the moon, mental images of the blonde flashing in her memory.

It was strange. It was like she knew who she is but couldn't quite put her finger on the Undead's identity.

She felt like she knew her well even though she knew only her name and nothing more.

"Yang..."

Blake sat there until sunrise, thinking of the peculiar, golden-haired Undead.

* * *

Weiss had what was perhaps her weirdest night yet so far.

"Hey, give it back!" Yang yelled from across the hallway, the sound of rapid footfall coming from her direction. Weiss saw a blur of pink run through her line of vision followed by a bright, blue flash of light when it reached the end of the hallway. Yang followed suit, hopping on one leg, her lips pursed and her eyes narrowed, staring at the end of the hall where nothing but a potted plant existed. Yang must have noticed Weiss watching and she gave her a small grin when their eyes met. "She got my leg."

"I can see that." Weiss replied, her eyes moving up and down Yang's person. She was missing her left leg, exposing a series of runes, wires, veins, and glyphs etched into the stump where her leg was supposed to be attached to. "Why did she even take your leg?"

"I don't know! Neo just takes parts of me sometimes!"

"Well, she must be" Weiss began, her eyebrows slowly rising as she prepared to voice her thoughts. A horrified expression spread across Yang's face when Weiss' lips began to part. "Pulling your leg!" Weiss finished and broke out into a fit of laughter. It was rare for an opportunity for her to make a pun to present itself, but whenever one does, she misses no beats in delivering a joke and enjoys the expression on everyone's faces. Especially Yang's.

"There's a time and a place for jokes!" Yang exclaimed and lost her balance. She wildly flailed her arms, trying to keep herself standing on one foot, but she eventually fell on her behind with a thud. "And besides, that's _my_ job!"

Another flash of blue light appeared and Yang's head swiveled to turn towards the source. Her brow furrowed in a frown as she got up to stand on one leg. "I need that!" She yelled and gave chase to Neo, who must have been mocking Yang judging by the look on the blonde's face. Weiss couldn't see what happened next, however, as it all occurred beyond her line of sight. What she could see was limited by a wall with only a narrow doorway permitting one to see into the hallway from the inside of the room.

"Keep quiet, you two!" Weiss shouted and got up from her seat, walking over to the doorway to shut the door. The ruckus beyond her room was too much and actually prevented her from thinking effectively. She had much on her mind and much to get out of it through writing.

She took her seat again when the shouting coming from the corridor just outside her door became muffled and distant, but the occasional _YOU PINK MIDGET! _along with a number of insults and unfathomably creative strings of expletives coming from Yang was audible.

Fortunately enough, a pair of earplugs was enough to drown out the cacophony of curses coming from the blonde. She smoothed out the ruffles in her light blue nightgown and drew the candlestick on the edge of her desk closer to the center of the mahogany surface, illuminating the blank journal pages that lay open on the desk and the bottle of ink with a swan's feather as a quill dipped into the black liquid sitting next to the journal. The manor was connected to the electric grid and had access to the energy humans use to power their homes. They figured that since the estate of their clan sat in the outskirts of the city of Vale, they should at least have the convenience of having electricity and more modern forms of technology like light bulbs, refrigerators, and the like. Weiss could've used a table lamp and pens instead like most people of the current day and age do, but she preferred to use older methods in filling out this certain notebook for it gave out a more classical feel, if that was the right word to describe the mood of writing in a diary in candlelight with a quill and ink.

She took the quill from the bottle of ink and pressed the nib onto the parchment paper. She began to write in the journal, recalling the events that transpired earlier that night and putting them into words. She had a habit of recording her night every night before the sun rises. It was a way of keeping things in memory throughout the years, especially since she's a pseudo-immortal who's lived for a long time and will continue to live for a long time. She'd made a lot of memories over the years, and immortalizing them in paper was a great way to keep them.

And the main focus of her latest journal entry was her encounter with the odd Therianthrope she met earlier. The one who didn't kill her and instead treated the wound on her head. The fair, young girl with short, black-and-red hair and striking, silver eyes.

Before she even noticed it, she had written a line she did not expect herself to write.

_I am curious as to what that girl is like. She seems like an intriguing individual in more ways than one and strangely enough, I think that it may be worth my time to try and see her again._

She just stared at the bottom of the page, not believing that her hand actually wrote that. A small heat blossomed in her cheeks as she replaced the quill into the ink bottle. It was too late to erase what she wrote because if she did, it would leave an unsightly blob of ink on the page. She couldn't tear it off, either. She would waste what was written on the opposite side of the page if she did.

Sighing, she just took the journal in her hands and closed the leather-bound volume. She got up and put it into her bookshelf, beside the many other journals she's compiled over the ages. They were sorted according to year, the oldest one being written way back in the early 1700's - about 300 years in the past. There were so many journals that she had an entire bookshelf just for her records.

She sighed contentedly and popped her knuckles, removing the plugs in her ears after. It was more quiet than it was earlier, at the very least. The two might have settled whatever conflict was going on between them. Weiss opened the door to her room and found Yang sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, a defeated look on her face. Her lilac eyes made contact with Weiss, the blonde's expression making her look like she was begging. "She wouldn't open the door." Yang said and sighed.

"She still has your leg?" Weiss asked just to break the silence. It was quite noticeable that her blonde friend was missing an entire limb.

Yang nodded tiredly and raised her left arm for Weiss to see another stump. "She also took my hand."

"I've got to _hand _it to her." Weiss said, smirking at the blonde's exasperated yet exhausted face. "She's got a good _hand _for taking body parts. But don't worry, your limbs are in good _hands_."

"Things quickly got out of _hand_." Yang replied with a satisfied sigh. "Why don't you be _handy _and lend me a _hand_ to get her to _hand _my parts over?" She continued, a proud grin growing on her face. "Because my limbs shouldn't be _hand_ me downs or else she'll force my_ hand _and I'll break down her door! But as much as possible, I don't want to get my _hands_ dirty." She then quietly yet delightedly exhaled a yes under her breath.

"Alright, you've gotten the upper _hand_!" Weiss exclaimed and shut the door. She could hear Yang bursting into laughter from the hallway. She ran her fingers through her hair and walked over to her bookshelf of journals, pulling out the most recent volume and opening it at the page she just wrote on. It lacked one crucial detail. She took the quill from the bottle and wrote one more line on the parchment.

_She may well be the first Therianthrope I would actually spare. Her name is Ruby._

She closed the journal and replaced it in her shelf. When she wrote down the records of her daily personal life, she was incredibly honest about it since her journals are among the few things she could be honest to. Also, those were her memories, and she didn't want herself to remember lies.

She took her place in her bed and drew up the blankets, falling asleep a few moments later when the clock over her bed struck 6:00 AM.

* * *

**A/N: 84 followers now! T-th-thank you for taking the time to read this and decide to follow/favorite! You guys are seriously chill AF.**

**Also, slight Bumbleby and Yang's hand puns.**


	7. Chapter 6

**[ VI ]**

* * *

"Good morning miss Schnee." The receptionist greeted from behind the building's front desk in a bright and welcoming fashion. The smile glued to her face was so obviously scripted and forced. "Your father's waiting for you in his office."

Weiss nodded in acknowledgment of the receptionist's greeting and made her way to the elevators on the opposite end of the vast lobby. The chrome-plated double-doors of the elevators slid shut when she stepped in and pressed the button on the control panel that corresponded to the top floor.

The floor where her father's office was.

Scenarios played out in her head about the meeting she would have with her father and what he might have wanted to talk to her about. It was only rarely thar her father sent for her in the middle of work hours and the topic of their discussion was almost always about military strategies or clan management - two topics Weiss wasn't so fond of talking about. She understood her father's reasoning behind the long talks about battle plans and clan economy because she was his daughter and was thus the heiress of his position as one of the three lords of their clan, but there were times in which she wished that her father would just talk to her about normal things like how her day went or what she liked to do for fun.

Ordinary, everyday things like ordinary, everyday humans talk to their children about.

The elevator dinged and the metal doors parted. A long, empty hallway stood before her, the walls and the arched ceiling washed white and a carpet the color of lapis lazuli with streaks of ice-cold blue spanned the floor. At the end of the hallway was a pair of oaken doors, the mark of the Schnee family engraved into the wood of each wooden panel.

She stepped out of the lift and walked with a calm composure towards the doors at the opposite end. A smile tugged at the edge of her lips - one she didn't even will. It was something like a reflex that occured whenever she found herself standing in the same corridor and her smile was more often than not just as plastic as the ones the employees of the company wore whenever anyone bearing the surname 'Schnee' walked around the premises.

A light push opened the doors and she peeked through the small opening in the ajar doorway. The office's walls were painted with the color of alabaster and the floor and domed ceiling were made of marble. On one wall lay sets of bookshelves loaded with old, leather volumes of varying thickness. Some of the texts even showed signs of weathering and decay. On the other was an array of replicas of famous paintings - the Mona Lisa and the Starry Night being the ones Weiss recognized almost immediately. A huge window looking out into the city skyline dominated the wall opposite from where Weiss stood, the light of the afternoon sun spilling through the glass panels and making her father look like nothing more than a sillhouette with its back turned to her.

"You're here." He said, not even turning nor budging one bit. "Please, take a seat."

Weiss closed the doors behind her and made her way to the desk in the center of the room, the mahogany table surrounded by three luxurious chairs made from black leather. She rested on one of the chairs with her hands folded neatly on her lap and her eyes trained on the shadowy figure standing against the luminous background. "I assume you know why I called you here." Her father continued in his deep, monotonous voice.

"No." Weiss answered. She really had no idea. Whenever her father summoned her, it was usually because of the vaguest of reasons. She often had to guess - even though the most common reasons were either Therianthrope-related matters or problems going on in the manor. Right now, it seemed as if the latter was the more probable option. "If this is about the incident in the kitchen that ended with ice cream and fire, I have nothing to do with it. It was Yang and Neo's fault and-"

Her father waved his hand dismissively. "It's not about that. It's about those Therianthropes." He sneered, his voice dripping with contempt and disgust. "They're getting more persistent. They're becoming more of a threat. This was thehe matter I wanted to address."

"The Therianthropes haven't been as active, as I've observed." Weiss replied, images of that time she plunged her rapier into a puma resurfacing in her mind. "I see only a few of them out at a time and I've rarely ever seen one roam in the city. If they do, they don't cause much of an interference with us."

"But they are." Her father answered with a cold edge in his tone. He might as well have delivered his reply through gritted teeth. "It's because of them that it's becoming increasingly difficult to sustain our clan members' needs. Remember Dove and Sky? We've found them as nothing but piles of dust."

"What? How?"

"Apparently, they weren't able to sustain themselves."

Weiss was silent. As an Undead, sustenance came in the form of flesh, aura, or blood - all of them sources of life energy, the power that the keep the Undead on this plane of existence. Being starved of these essential energies never end well for most.

"This matter has to be addressed." Her father continued, his hands lacing behind his back. It was obvious that his grip was tight. Weiss could just see her father's left hand closing around his right wrist like he was trying to strangle his wrist. It was what he did every time he was stressed out or thinking of something that wasn't really pleasurable to him. "We're going to have to take direct action."

"Direct action?" Weiss asked, baffled. "You mean an attack?"

"Yes."

"But if we attack now, it won't end well! An attack at this point will be premature given their commendable strength - especially the powers each of them posses."

"They're Therianthropes, Weiss." Her father snapped back. There was annoyance in his low, monotonous voice. "We're Undead. We've cheated Death itself and are continuing to do so with every second of our existence. We shouldn't be scared of a few ancients who can turn into woodland animals."

"But still." Weiss replied, weighing pros and cons inside her head. On one hand, Undead were notorious for having master control over several magical forces, connections to the otherworlds, and inhuman resiliency. On the other, the Undead were known to have a number of weaknesses and that Therianthropes held powerful innate abilities by their side. Either side could easily overpower the other if they were on equal ground and going one-on-one, but recently, the Therianthropes had the advantage of numbers - something Weiss' faction did not have at the time. "If we do engage them in battle, we're going to end up with a lot of casualties and a total loss." She pointed out, already calculating how much and who might be those who will be struck down in the event of a major battle with their enemy race.

"But if we don't act now, they might get stronger. That'll spell the end of the Tantibus clan." Her father looked over his shoulder. Weiss could feel eyes on her, piercing into her very soul, even though her father's face was still mostly a silhouette. The bright light from the window created a poweful contrast and her father's facial features were just as recognizable as that of a shadow. "We must take action. Reduce their forces at least, if we can't be rid of them entirely."

Weiss considered for a while. Her father had a point about them being the superior race. Her mother used to tell her every time before she went to bed that they were creatures of the darkness who not even Death can hold back. That they were superior beings who held the right to rule over the mundane humans plaguing the earth.

She always believed her mother whenever she said that.

"How are we going to attack, then?"

"And that's what I wanted to talk to you about." Her father replied. "Shall we begin creating strategies?"

* * *

Yang's night didn't start out so well.

Aside from getting told off because of last night's kitchen shenanigans that ended with a room full of burning ice cream, a certain pink-and-brown-haired girl who had a penchant for taking parts of her body and hiding them in bizarre places all around the manor was on the loose again and Yang had to keep a wary eye out for her.

Slow, heavy footfall sounded from behind her.

"If you're going to be taking my leg again, then don't even bother!" Yang exclaimed and turned around to meet the shorter girl. "I've had it bound tight to my body, so there's no way you're taking it!"

Neo blew her a raspberry and ran towards her. Yang's leg just popped out effortlessly when the shorter girl pulled it free. "You've got to be pulling my leg!" Yang didn't even see Neo take her limb. She just saw a short blur of white, pink, and gray, and another flash of blue light. Next thing she knew, her leg was gone for the second time.

"What is it about my leg that you like so much?!" Yang exclaimed at nothing. The hallway was completely empty of any non-living personnel save for her. She just sat on the floor, slumped against the wall, her left leg missing and in the hands of Neo.

Footsteps came from the other side of the hall and Yang swiveled her head towards the source. It was Weiss. She had an excited yet problematic expression etched across her face no matter how much she obviously tried to hide it behind a mask of confidence. Yang knew Weiss too well to know when her expressions were faked. The heiress did it most of the time and Yang just got used to it. "Weiss-o excited?" Yang prompted and snickered. The lack of a leg was not about to stop her from making puns.

A look of exasperation flashed briefly across Weiss' face and returned to the expression she wore a moment ago. "We're holding a council later. It's about planning for the next attack on the Therianthropes. Also, have you seen Neo around?"

"Seen her?" Yang replied sarcastically and gestured towards her missing leg. She heard Weiss hold back a chuckle. "Oh, I've seen her, alright."

"Well, if you see her again, tell her to come to the conference room. She's needed there. Heck, you're needed there, too."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"Well, until I get my leg back from the pink menace, I don't think I can do anything much."

Weiss eye twitched and she threw her head back, her ponytail swaying as she did. "Neo!" She called out and a familiar flash of bright, blue light appeared. A figure popped out of thin air, the upper half of her body concealed behind a pink parasol. "Neo, can you please give Yang back her leg? We're going to be creating strategies for the next attack and we need both of you in the conference room."

Neo threw a limb into the air and Yang made the mistake of tracking its motion with her eyes. She watched and it hit her in the face quite painfully. She never knew just how hard her leg was or just how much mass was in one limb until she had the displeasure of having her own thigh meet her face. "Thanks." Yang said through gritted teeth as she reattached her leg to her hip.

"Great. Now that you have your leg, you can head over to the conference room." Weiss said and began to walk away. Neo just jumped into the air and disappeared into thin air with a burst of light, leaving Yang alone in the corridor.

Yang got up and shook her leg. It still felt a bit numb after being away from her body for a while. "Hey, princess, wait up!" She ran after Weiss and followed the white-haired girl down a series of corridors, staircases, and magical barriers put up to prevent certain people from passing through the threshold. There was even a magical threshold set up in the doorways into the kitchen following the 'ice-and-fire incident' as the kitchen staff had taken to calling it so that neither Yang nor Neo could get in.

"Everyone's here, I see." Weiss announced as she entered the room. Yang looked around and found some of the clan's greatest minds sitting around an oval table. Two humans - supporters of their side - were even present but Yang couldn't recognize their features. They were surrounded by an enchantment that concealed them from an Undead's eyes by turning them into silhouettes so that they wouldn't be attacked or eaten out of instinct or impulse. "Can we begin our planning?"

"Yes, of course." One of the humans said and brought his hand to his face. "Therianthrope activity has seen a considerable increase in the past week. At this rate, they might become powerful enough to defeat this clan soon enough, but it is a nice opportunity to intervene now and at least reduce their numbers if we aren't able to wipe them out entirely." He stood and grabbed a long, wooden pointer and pointed at the forest of Forever Fall on the big map lain out in the middle of the table. "Here's my suggestion..."

Yang had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

* * *

It wasn't everyday that a human enters the perimeter of the Forever Fall tribe.

Ruby watched from a distance as her dad and Qrow talked to the white-haired human like they have best friends for a long time. They were chatting nonchalantly and laughing, and it was her dad's booming laughter which was the loudest of all.

"What're you doing here?" Blake whispered beside Ruby and the latter nearly jumped. She had been laying low behind a bush and watching the threesome converse since the human walked into the village's area. She'd been sitting in her place and watching intently for such a long time that she didn't even hear Blake approaching. It was almost like the cat girl just popped out directly beside her. "Him again? He usually has a woman with him whenever he goes here."

"You know him?" Ruby asked, glancing at the girl beside her momentarily.

Blake nodded. "He's on our side. He acts like a messenger, bringing news from the city here and telling them to the elders. I wonder what he's telling your dad now."

Ruby watched the expression on Taiyang and Qrow's faces slowly turn grim. The human must have told them something bad. Qrow nodded solemnly and Taiyang stroked his chin the way he always does whenever he's thinking of something. With a goodbye, the human began to walk away and Taiyang turned to Qrow. They appeared to have been talking about something.

"Ruby." Her dad called and Ruby flinched. She watched her father turn his head towards the bush she was hiding behind. His eyes looked like he was staring directly into hers. "I know you're in there. Come out, there's something I'd like to talk to you about."

"How did he-" Ruby turned to look at Blake, but the black-haired girl was already gone. She didn't even make a noise nor leave a trace like she wasn't even there in the first place. Out of options, Ruby stood from the behind the bush and made a mock salute to greet her dad. "Hi."

"Ruby, come here." Qrow said and motioned for her to come closer. She stepped around the bush and made her way towards her father and her uncle carefully, afraid that they might reprimand her for eavesdropping. "I'm going to be blunt with you." He continued and crossed his arms over his chest. Now Ruby was really intimidated. She might get grounded again. Not a good thing, she thought. "The Undead are planning to attack and we're planning on putting you in defensive force."

Ruby stopped in her tracks, surprised at what her uncle said. It wasn't because he just assigned her to a defense task without much deliberation - especially since she's relatively young - but because she wasn't told of in any way, shape, or form. Qrow didn't even sound angry at all.

"M-me?"

"Yes." Taiyang answered and ruffled her hair with his beefy hand. He put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her a bit closer. "And according to our contact, they're planning an attack tonight, so this is what's going to happen. Listen..."

Just listening to her father's plans, Ruby knew she was in for quite an exhilarating night.

* * *

**A/N: How long has it been since I last updated? O_O"**

**Anyways: sorry for the late update, I've been busy with academic stuff and a writer's block which a couple of friends helped alleviate (looking at you, Sapphire and animage-k6 - thanks~).**

**All I've to say is... expect some White Rose next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 7

**[ VII ]**

* * *

Ruby was picking her way through the undergrowth, attentive of her surroundings. She has been put on scouting duty by her father earlier that day after he was told of an incoming skirmish on their settlement. A boring task for her, but one upside she saw was that she got to kill anything that she crosses that seems funny or off in any way. So far, she saw nothing.

Nothing of particular interest lay in the horizon other than the small pinpricks of light arranged in neat columns and rows in the distance. Those were the lights that illuminated the streets of the human city - a place Ruby was close to most of the time and dreamt of visiting, but can't. No one in the tribe - except for a select few - are permitted to set foot in the city. The area is under the jurisdiction of the local Undead clan and if their presence is detected there, they would quickly be marked for death and exterminated.

Ruby found an old stump near the outer fringes of the forest, where the trees began to thin. The aged, decaying tree stump was covered with moss and mushrooms. A perfect spot to sit for a while and think about things. She had been on patrol for hours on end that her legs ached, and the container of water strapped around her waist was nearly empty. Carefully, Ruby set her behind on the stump with a sigh and gazed out into the distance, her focus fixed on the blinking lights of the distant city.

Everyone had been anticipating an attack from the creatures of the night, that the chief council of the tribe had already taken preventive countermeasures. Reaching out towards the city, Ruby knocked on the empty space and a barrier materialized in thin air, pale green and translucent, yet solid. A faint, green ring rippled outward from where her knuckle hit the barrier; the magical shield fading back into nonexistence when she distanced her hand from it. On the ground where the barrier met the earth, there were smooth stones half-buried into the earth and each engraved with a rune that hummed with an unseen energy. The stones had been set in an earlier age, designed to create a protective barrier around the perimeter of the forest to keep out invaders who intended to bring harm to their territory. But due to the amount of energy needed to maintain the magic that will protect the tribe and its occupants, the council of ages past agreed to keep it dormant until it was needed. An attack like that their human allies warned them of made the council conclude that it was necessary to reawaken the barrier in the hopes of protecting them from the incoming Undead threat.

A threat that has not made its presence felt yet so far.

Until Ruby's sharp vision made out faint lights in the distance that were nothing like the flickering, luminous spots in the city. Those lights remained stationary. The new lights she saw flickered even more and appeared to be growing larger, closer - as if they were approaching the tribe.

She assumed that it was another group of humans looking to camp in the forest's vicinity and she shook her head with a quiet tsk. The barrier was also designed to keep humans out. Any human that approaches the shield would be affected by its magic and would be distracted enough for them to decide to do something else or forget what they were about to do entirely.

But the air didn't carry the scent of human. It carried something more putrid. Something like decaying flesh. She tried to peer into the approaching lights.

The lights were fires on torches carried by vaguely-human like figures, but their stink was so rancid that her sensitive nose could pick it up from a great distance.

Ghouls.

The Undead have arrived.

She scrambled to detach the horn strapped to her waist, and after fumbling around with it for a while, blew into it to warn the tribe to prepare a defense.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Weiss stood a fair distance from the outskirts of the forest their age-old enemies resided. Even from a distance, she could feel a faint humming in the air around the trees making up the outer fringes of the forest of Forever Fall. Powerful sorcery was present, weaved by the hands of the older generations of Therianthropes to keep any intruders out. Powerful sorcery that has, time and time again, foiled the attacks of the Undead on the forest's inhabitants.

"No longer." Weiss whispered to herself, a smirk crawling across her face. Years of slowly picking away and weakening the energies that kept the barrier around the forest functional have been wasted. The forces keeping it up were far too powerful. But the latest experiments of her clan would finally bear fruit that night. Soon, she would see the barrier that had protected the Therianthrope tribe for ages crumble into dust. And all that she would need to crush the Therianthropes' first line of defense was the power of one individual - a weapon created to realize this very purpose.

_"Yes, tomorrow, we will witness her full potential." _Weiss' own voice reverberated in her head as she reminisced the events of the previous night in the conference room. _"We will get to see her in action and see just how much power she holds."_

_"Have you run the tests?" _The voice of one of her clan's human allies asked. _"How will we know if she truly has the capability to break through the barrier?"_

_"Tomorrow would serve as a test. We'll see if she truly has the power sufficient to make the Therianthropes vulnerable to our attacks." _She replied with pride. She was certain that their newfound toy would perform her task without flaw and more.

_"Very well." _The same human answered, but with doubt in his voice.

_"Doubt not," _she continued, "_after all, this is one of the most powerful sorceresses to ever exist that we are talking about."_

"How long do you think it will take before she gets here?" Weiss asked her adjunct, the monstrous amalgamation of human body parts, who stood beside her. Yang was observing the forest with a pair of binoculars.

"Hm?" The blonde replied without taking her gaze off the forest. "Uh... soon. I think."

"How soon?" Weiss asked impatiently. She was getting far too excited to destroy one of the Therianthropes' most notable defenses.

"I don't know." Yang replied without even flinching. "Having to travel by car with a brainless zombie for a driver doesn't exactly make for the fastest travel times. Probably got stuck in a ditch or something because the driver got distracted by roadkill." The blaring of a car horn suddenly pierced through the silence of the night and Yang sighed in response. "She's here."

Weiss turned around excitedly. She couldn't wait to see the immense power their sorceress held be applied to combat an equally-powerful, if not lesser, force. From the passenger seat of an old, blue car emerged the Tantibus clan's latest weapon: an undead humanoid with skin that had a deathly pallor. Her eyes were sunken and the contours of her skull evident through the thin skin of her face. Black lines traced the bottom of her eyes. On her hands were gloves, but Weiss was certain that under those gloves - under all those clothes, as a matter of fact - was a shriveled form that resembled a skeleton with skin. Despite her frail appearance however, she was not to be underestimated as she held an immense reserve of power. The hair that grew from her skull was pink and brown with a few streaks of white, and her irises were reflective discs that turned pink, brown, or silver to her preference. "Neo." Weiss greeted and the lich nodded back in response. "Are you ready for the attack?" The shorter girl nodded once more and contined walking past Weiss and Yang, parasol in hand turning carelessly, like she wouldn't even break a sweat while destroying the barrier around the forest.

"Are you sure she can do it?" Yang asked, leaning a bit towards Weiss. Her lilac eyes were fixed on the short girl calmly walking closer to the invisible shield.

"Have faith. She could." Weiss answered without looking to Yang. She was much to caught up in anticipation. Waiting to see the approaching spectacle of conflicting energies. "After all, she _is_ one of the most powerful known Liches."

Neo was created a few months before the night of the attack, brought to undeath in the laboratories within the labyrinthine structures underneath the manor. In life, she had been a powerful sorceress feared by generations of knights and monarchs. At the end of her life, she kept death at bay by performing a rutual that turned her living, mortal body into an unliving, immortal, animated corpse. Thus she began her reign as the Lich, terrorizing the humans until some time near the end of the Dark Ages when she had been killed. Upon knowing of her legend, members of the Tantibus clan were dispatched to seek out and retrieve the corpse of the sorceress so that its flesh can be reconstructed from the basic genetic components to create a vessel for her displaced soul. It also took time for the clan's mediums to call out to her in the astral planes. Even as a disembodied spirit, she was still far too powerful to be contained, yet they were able to convince her to reoccupy her reconstructed body and become the newest member of their clan. By the time everything has been said and done, the lich Neo has been brought to undeath to once again wreak havoc upon the earth - starting with the Therianthropes.

Weiss knew of this once-secret project since her mother took an active role in recreating a corporeal form to act as Neo's vessel in the mortal plane.

Yang and her watched as Neo drove her parasol into the earth. A dark, tar-like substance emerged from the ground where her parasol was in and the fluid formed a pool of black, bubbly liquid that continued to grow, killing the grass and flowers that it touched, reducing them to the same black fluid that joined the bigger pool. The odor was worse than just putrid. It was a terrible combination of the odor of rotting meat, ammonia, acid, and thiols. Every bubble that formed on the surface of the liquid grew until it popped, releasing more of the rancid vapor into the atmosphere. The pool continued to grow until Weiss and her adjunct had to move backwards so as not to touch the fluid. After seeing what it did to the plants it touched, Weiss had no intention of finding out what would happen if it touched her.

One of the ghouls in their company wasn't so fortunate. He was caught by the black liquid and he sank into it like it was quicksand, but faster, despite it not even reaching his ankles. It quickly ate away at what remained of his flesh while the liquid itself seemed like it was sentient and climbed along the ghoul's body, corroding what parts of the ghoul it touched and pulling it down faster. In the end, nothing remained - not even fragments of bones or flesh.

"Uh, I don't really like this..." Yang uttered nervously, the gaze of her lilac eyes alternating between the lich and the black substance under her feet. Weiss wondered why she hadn't been eaten by the substance yet.

Finally, Neo freed her parasol from the earth and the pool stopped growing. Raising her parasol into the air, Neo pointed at the sky above the canopies of the forest of Forever Fall's trees and the black substance took a more solid shape. From the pool of black liquid rose multitudes of arms and hands - all composed of the same material. Weiss personally found it creepy and she watched as the arms stretched towards the barrier like elastic bands. A green dome-like structure materialized around the forest in response. The hands of the black liquid touched the base dome, and the barrier's bright green glow dulled a bit and flickered in and out of existence as the substance began to eat away at the barrier, slowly corroding it like acid eating through glass.

A note appeared in Weiss' hand and she read it. Ink on old parchment. It read: _I am not yet at my full capacity. I can only keep the barrier weakened long enough for you to enter, attack, and retreat as needed. Apologies. Mustering enough energy to destroy a barrier of this strength takes a lot of time - which we do not have. Enter and wreak havoc. Then you must retreat lest you be trapped within the dome and with nowhere to run. They will catch you and kill you. You have ten minutes at most once a breach has been opened._

In a matter of moments, the barrier would be breached, and the attack can proceed as planned, but with a bit of a compromise.

"At least it's something." Yang stated and began to run towards the site of the dome where it was weakening.

Weiss agreed. It wasn't what she expected, but it was something. The attack can still go on. She smirked. Their new weapon could prove useful against the Therianthropes in the future.

* * *

Ruby started running towards the tribe the moment she saw those black tendrils eat away at the barrier. At her top speed, it only took her five or six seconds to reach her destination. "Dad!" She called frantically upon arriving at the tribe's center. "Dad! Dad!"

"Ruby?" Taiyang answered, looking over his shoulder. He was discussing something with one of the elders. "Can it wait?"

"But, dad, it's the Undead!" Ruby exclaimed, waving her arms in the air like no tomorrow. "They're here and they found a way to break through the barrier!"

The bustling tribe fell silent all of a sudden and the looks on the elders' faces turned mortified and pale with fear. "E... Excuse me?" One of the elders asked in apparent disbelief. "That cannot be. Surely, it cannot. The barrier has been active for ages and has protected us from major attacks from the Undead clans for so long. It's not possible that it would just weaken."

"But it did! I saw it!" Ruby answered, recalling what she saw - a black, fluid-like substance that dissolved the barrier upon contact. "There was... something. Like black arms melting away the barrier. I don't know what it is, but it's out there making a breach in our defenses!"

The sky above them flickered and a translucent green dome materialized. It was the barrier, except that its glow was evidently weaker and it flickered in and out of existence every now and then. Everyone gasped collectively as they watched the dome appear and disappear. One of the elders even fainted. "Qrow!" Taiyang exclaimed, "go scout the skies! See what's going on near the border and how many are getting in!"

With a nod, Qrow assumed the form of a crow with a few salt-and-pepper streaks in its wings and took to the skies. As Qrow left, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren came running into the tribe center, panicked looks on each other's faces. "There was a breach!" An exhausted and sweaty Jaune reported, his breaths heavy and his legs shaking.

"I know. Ruby here told me already." Taiyang responded and faced Jaune and his company. "You better go and hold off the Undead who went into the breach. Prevent them from reaching this place!" With a nod, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren took off, and Jaune trailed behind them, panting heavily and trying to run even though he's obviously exhausted. Taiyang turned to face Ruby next. Blake stood beside her, waiting for orders to be dispatched. "And you two... follow them. Intercept the enemy. We will need every able-bodied person defending there."

With a nod, Ruby and Blake headed off to the scene of the breach, where Undead must be spilling in continuously. Anyone who's fighting there is going to need reinforcements - and they'll be there to provide it.

* * *

The breach didn't even look like it was part of the forest anymore.

Undead flooded in en masse, engaging the Therianthrope forces defending the area. Dead littered the ground - both Therianthrope and Undead. And it was a horrifying sight to behold. Her comrades had parts of them bitten off from their bodies. Corpses with arms, legs, or bits of their faces with bitemarks. Ruby and Blake sprinted off to join the fray and assist their comrades, but were stopped abruptly by an obstacle that wasn't there before.

A glyph that materialized out of thin air.

"Ruby. We meet again." A familiar voice rang, strangely audible amidst the screams of her Therianthrope comrades. She turned around to find a familiar girl with white hair and pale skin. Around her lay a cold and ominous aura that made Ruby's spine tingle.

"Weiss." Ruby said through gritted teeth, though a small piece of her conscience within her felt at least a bit glad to see Weiss again. Almost akin to the feeling of being excited to see one's rival just so one can have a good fight. "it's been quite a while. Blake, meet Weiss." Ruby told her feline partner.

"Introducing each other now, huh? Well, I feel as if it's impolite to not do the same." Weiss replied with a proud laugh as a blonde figure came to stand beside her. "I'm fairly certain you and my adjunct here have met yet are still unfamiliar of her identity. This is Yang."

"We've met." Blake snarled, claws extending.

"Yeah, we have." Yang replied, popping her knuckles. "And we still have some unfinished business. Care to finish what you started?"

"I'll be happy to." Blake responded and lunged at Yang, primed to claw her face off. In a flurry of exploding punches and claw swipes, the two led each other away so they can mind their own one-on-one, leaving Ruby alone with Weiss.

"Remember last time I said that I'll kill you next time? Well, now's that time." Weiss stated proudly. With a smirk on her face, she pointed her rapier at Ruby.

"Last time?" Ruby asked. "You mean in that cave after you got hit by a log?" She added, recalling the time when she looked after the injured Undead before she left.

"That never happened!" Weiss exclaimed, frustrated about something.

"Oh, yeah it did." Ruby continued with a lightly-mocking tone. "You even kissed me before you took off!" She teased, recalling how Weiss' lips felt against her cheek - an awkward thing, considering that one of her species' life-long enemies demonstrated an act of affection towards her. Weiss' lips her cold, yet light and soft and Ruby found herself unconsciously stroking the part of her cheek Weiss kissed that time a few days ago.

"Shut up! None of that ever happened!" Weiss screamed, apparently flustered. Ruby found it adorable when the white-haired girl was flustered. "You know what? I'll just kill you so the memory of those events would be like they never existed!" A red glyph appeared in front of Weiss, and with a swipe of her rapier, the are around them was spontaneously set ablaze, filling the night with yellow and orange light accompanied by thick plumes of smoke.

Ruby lunged at the Undead, hand partially-morphed into that of her anthropomorphic form, and made a swipe of her claw at Weiss, who skillfully parried her strike with the rapier. Ruby continued her string of attacks, swiping her lupine claws at Weiss, who kept blocking every strike with her weapon. Ruby snarled. The white-haired Undead was certainly not like the others. She was more skilled, more graceful.

"Is that the best you have to show me, pup?" Weiss taunted and laughed maniacally, the roaring inferno around them reflecting in her blood-red irises, giving them a much more malevolent look. "You're going to have to move a lot faster than that to hit me!"

Ruby laughed. "Faster, huh?" She continued her assault, but now with increased speed. Her hands moved like a blur in front of her, and Weiss was obviously struggling to keep up to Ruby's more vigorous strikes. Ruby watched as the Undead girl became increasingly fatigued as she tried to deflect every rapid claw stroke. She finally got Weiss where she wanted her.

Ruby balled her anthropomorphic paw into a fist and aimed it at Weiss. She didn't aim to hit the Undead square in the face. Rather, she sought to disarm Weiss first before clawing away at Weiss.

But Ruby overlooked one crucial detail. While Ruby pulled back her fist in preparation for a huge strike, she realized that Weiss can control those glyphs. A yellow glyph appeared in between them just as Ruby let her fist fly. Her hand made contact with the glyph and lightning arced in the air around the insignia. The air hummed with electricity and electrical energy ran along the length of Ruby's arm and through the rest of her body, giving her a powerful and debilitating shock.

"Where's that bravado from earlier?" Weiss mocked triumphantly, making her way towards Ruby with murderous intent in her piercing, red gaze. The Undead girl chuckled. "This will be over quickly."

* * *

"Would you please stand still?" Yang asked as she continued firing projectiles from her gauntlets. Every punch of hers missed - Blake was just too good at evasion. Quick as the patchwork abomination was, she was just no match to Blake's agility and ability to leave mirror images of herself to take hits in her stead. "I'm on a tight schedule!"

"In a rush to leave?" Blake asked and lunged at Yang, claws extended. Her claws scraped against the gauntlets on Yang's wrists. Sparks flew from the metal and a shrill, scratching noise was produced by the contact, making both Yang and Blake recoil from the discomfort in their ears. Blake saw her chance when Yang was shaking her head, making her golden locks sway from left to right. She tackled the Undead girl and knocked her down. "Why? Have a date scheduled?" She asked in a mocking tone whilst pinning Yang down on the dirt.

"Well, no." Yang answered in a manner Blake found strange. The vicious look on Yang's face was replaced with a dumbfounded look and those lilac eyes stared right into Blake's own. A gaze that didn't feel hostile. Rather, Yang's gaze seemed as if she wanted something. "Unless you want me to have a date scheduled, then you're more than welcome to accompany me."

Blake's mind blacked out for a moment. "Wh-what?" She stuttered. She thought she heard the Undead girl beneath her try to ask her out on a date. "I, uh..." Blake found herself tongue-tied all of a sudden. She kept replaying those words over and over in her head and her own words didn't form in her mind correctly. Much less come out the way she wanted to say them. She was fairly certain that there was a strange burning sensation in her cheeks. It may have been the heat of the nearby fires over where Ruby and Weiss were fighting or the heat in her face could have been something else.

She didn't see what came next either. Yang lifted her head from the ground and hit Blake's forehead with hers, sending Blake tumbling backwards. She let her guard down and lost her hold on the Undead. "Distraction. Real clever." Blake commended, rubbing her aching forehead. Yang had a skull as hard as steel. She got on her feet and Yang did as well, both of them assuming a fighting stance, getting ready for another round of hand-to-hand combat.

"Answer me one thing, though." Yang began as she cracked her knuckles. "Were you actually considering it?"

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Blake sputtered admittedly a bit louder than she appropriate. "Idiot! Apparently they forgot to give you working brains when they made you! Like I'll consider going out with an Undead!"

"You were considering it." Yang replied mockingly with a smirk on her face, her lilac eyes showing amusement and delight. "You totally were."

"No I was not!"

"Look at you... you're flustered! That's so cute!" Yang continued in a mocking and taunting tone. "Well, I really wouldn't mind taking you out. I'd really like to get some of that."

Blake clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. She had heard enough. "Shut up!" She yelled as she lunged at Yang again, claws ready to dig into that smug face and tear it to shreds. Her mind's been scrambled enough by her thoughts that involved going out with the blonde girl - thoughts that she felt were unwelcome in her mind, yet thoughts that just sprung up in her head nonetheless. For a brief moment while pinning down the Undead girl, she had genuinely thought of how it would have been to accept Yang's offer - the worst time to ponder on things like those.

Blake rapidly swept her claws at Yang, the latter of which doing an expert job at parrying every single strike with her gauntlets. Sparks flew each time Blake hit Yang's wrists, and a shrill noise accompanied every parried strike.

"My turn to lead this dance." Yang threw a punch aimed straight at Blake's face and Blake ducked to avoid the trajectory of Yang's fist. She took her opportunity and yanked Yang's leg, sending the blonde crashing down into the dirt with a loud thud. "Downed again?" Yang questioned in disbelief. "You've got to be pulling my leg!"

Blake pinned Yang down again, this time determined to keep the Undead down. "You're very easy to take down, you know that?"

"Well, what can I say?" Yang replied, the smug look on her face earlier reappearing. "I like being downed. I'm a bit of a bottom."

"E-excuse me?"

"What?"

Blake's imagination went hyperactive again. It may not have been the best of ideas to read the adult-genre books in the library in the human city whenever she was permitted to visit.

"Uh, Blake?" Yang called. "You okay? I'm kinda curious as to what's going on in your head right now."

"Don't ask." Blake replied, too flustered to even react in a hostile manner. It was a terrible time to remember, in detail, the books she has read.

"Why? Is it something unspeakable?"

Blake shook her head quickly to shake those thoughts off. "Weren't we fighting?"

Yang had a dumbfounded look on her face. "Oh right."

* * *

Weiss made her way towards the downed Therianthrope, smoke curling off of Ruby's incapacitated form. She might have put too much voltage in the electric glyph she had used. At least it did its purpose of knocking Ruby out. "Just a while ago, you were moving blindingly fast. What about now? You're just lying there on the ground, helpless. What will you do next?"

Ruby stirred, much to Weiss' surprise. The electricity should have been enough to disable - if not kill - Ruby. "What I'll do next..." Ruby got on her feet, yet her knees were still wobbling. Patches of her face were charred with fine wisps of smoke rising from them, and she looked like she was struggling against her own injuries. Despite it all however, she managed to stand up.

Weiss was amused. She could continue fighting for some more time.

She always knew Ruby was an interesting subject starting from that night Weiss was knocked out by a log.

"Well?" Weiss challenged. "What next?"

"I think by now you know that we Therianthropes have three forms." Ruby continued, black fur springing from her skin. Her claws extended to long, black, blade-like projections that gleamed in the light of the inferno surrounding them. Her mouth protruded outwards to form a muzzle, and several sharp, white teeth poked out of the lupine snout. In a matter of moments, where Ruby once was now stood an anthropomorphic beast caught between human and wolf. It stood on two legs like a human, yet covered with black fur and displaying prominent claws and teeth like that of a wolf. Two flat, horn-like blades protruded from both sides of the creature's skull as well, gleaming dully like the long, sharp claws on both of the beast's hands. Patterns were drawn on the creature's chest in red fur. Wisps of ghostly, white smoke rose from the beasts body and trailed behind it whenever it moved.

Ruby threw her head back and howled. It was too loud for Weiss' preference and she covered her ears while the Therianthrope continued its feral cry.

With little time to react, Weiss jumped out of the way of Ruby's claw. She swiped it in a wide arc, leaving some of the wispy smoke to trace the path her claws took. She had to evade the next attack too. One skillful veer to the left saved her from being sliced vertically. "So this is what you could do... Impressive." Weiss praised and raised her Rapier against the beast. "But can you withstand my magic?"

Another glyph appeared beneath Ruby's feet. This time, it was pale blue. With another flick of Weiss' wrist, cold burst from the ground, trapping the werewolf in a cage of ice. A cage of ice that wasn't able to hold Ruby off for long. Within seconds, Ruby's claws broke through the thick ice like it wasn't even there. "That it?" Ruby taunted in a voice caught between her human voice and a feral, lupine growl.

Weiss laughed nervously. She had underestimated the Therianthrope girl. "Well, as much as I would love to stay and show you more..." She glanced at the expensive wristwatch she wore. Ten minutes was almost done. She had to leave immediately or the breach would close and she would be trapped. "I have to go. I'll see you again."

With that, Weiss turned around and took off without turning back.

She rushed to where the breach opened. Therianthropes and Undead were still fighting near the hole in the barrier, but she had no time to wait for all of them to leave. She had to retreat before the barrier closed in on her and trapped her in the forest. Just as she readied herself to sprint towards the opening, white smoke raced in front of her and materialized, taking the form of Ruby's werewolf state. "Why the rush?" Ruby asked in the same horrifying voice.

Weiss looked past Ruby and watched as the black substance that dissolved the barrier dissipated. The breach closed almost instantaneously, cutting in half one of the poor ghouls that she had brought along. Beyond the translucent barrier, she watched Neo collapse all of a sudden, obviously exhausted from her latest endeavor. "There goes my escape route." Weiss muttered in utter defeat. She should have left earlier before Neo's power was expended.

"Give up, Weiss." Ruby said as she reverted back to her humanoid form, her voice progressively changing from feral to how she usually sounded like. "You're trapped, outnumbered, and surrounded. We could kill you right here, right now. Or you could come with us as our prisoner. Your adjunct is our prisoner as well. Choose."

Weiss looked behind Ruby and found Yang bound by chains and surrounded by several Therianthropes- one of them being Blake, who stood right in front of the blonde. Yang's eyes met Weiss' and the blonde gave her a grin, though there was defeat behind it.

Weiss returned her gaze to Ruby. There was a different look in her silver eyes now. Gone was the child Weiss assumed to be naive. Before her stood a girl who knew how to lead, who knew how to come up victorious.

A truly interesting subject indeed.

Dropping her rapier, Weiss raised her hands above her head in surrender. "Fine. I surrender." She announced through gritted teeth, not able to believe that her plan failed. "You win."

* * *

**A/N: I am so sorry for my looooong absence! How long has it been since the last update? 5 months? Eh, somewhere close to that. Real sorry, people. School got to me and since my chosen course is hard as hell - we have lots of chemistry. No, not in a romantic sense. There's nothing romantic about fricking carbon rings.**

**Anyways, school and life got in the way of writing this little thing here, but since RWBY Volume 3 is coming closer as we speak (and it's Halloween month too so why not reawaken the vampire/werewolf RWBY AU I did 5 or so months ago), I had to get my writing mojo back on and continue writing this because heck did I leave you guys hanging for a looooong time. Sorry again~ About the White Rose I said in the previous chapter too. The White Rose here didn't get as White Rose-y as I wanted. Maybe next chapter now that Weiss is a prisoner of war. ****( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

**I'll try to NOT have unannounced hiatuses this time.**

**Sincerely yours - N.S.**


	9. Chapter 8

**[ VIII ]**

* * *

Weiss never really appreciated small spaces.

Following the disastrous events the night before, Weiss and Yang found themselves surrounded by an entire horde of Therianthropes, outnumbered a hundred-to-one. Surrender was a better alternative to dying for the second time. Weiss just wished that the beasts could have afforded larger cell space in their prison.

Or at least an actual prison instead of a hollowed-out tree.

"Yang, would you cut that out?" Weiss asked through gritted teeth as she slumped back into the wall made of coarse bark. Hours of having to watch her adjunct try to punch her way through the sides of the tree in a hopeless effort to get out tended to get on her nerves. Especially if the noise from that activity kept waking her from her sleep every now and then.

"Oh, sorry, princess. Was I disturbing your morning nap?" Yang remarked sarcastically and tried her fist at the bark wall one last time before collapsing and leaning against the same wall. "I give up. I need a break."

Needless to say, the tree was enchanted somehow. The wood was as hard as cast iron if not harder and healed any damages in less time than it took to actually damage it. Not even fire can hurt it. "Stupid tree." Yang muttered and threw a pebble against her tree's interior.

"We're not getting out of here any time soon, you know that." Weiss told Yang. She took a deep breath and sighed - and immediately regretted doing so. The musky and earthy aromas floating around the inside of the tree assailed her nostrils, and she wasn't entirely fond of those smells. "We've been trying for hours to break out. No dice. Even those beasts outside are laughing at us."

Every now and then, some Therianthropes would peek into the window for a brief while. Whether it was to laugh or to gloat from their latest achievement of successfully capturing sentient Undead, she never knew. The latest was a girl with azure eyes and black hair hidden under a hood. She just passed by the window, peered inside for a brief while, and left. Some even had enough nerve to drop an offensive remark as they passed, which resulted in Yang reacting loudly and violently.

Yang got to her feet and peered out the hole in the tree's bark. It was a few meters above the ground and wide enough to let either of them poke their torsos out of the hole wasn't closed off by wooden bars. The blonde clutched the bars. "Let me out!" She yelled. Weiss could hear laughter from the other side. Yang sighed and slumped against the wall. Their time in the tree prison was the first time Weiss had seen the fiery blonde look so defeated.

"Cheer up." Weiss told her blonde adjunct. "It's been days and we're still here. They're obviously not planning to send us back to the grave."

"I just want to get some fresh air..."

"No fresh air," said a new, yet familiar voice from outside the tree. "So, how about some food instead?"

"That I could do with." Yang answered.

Weiss recognized the voice as Ruby's. She peered out of the barred window and on the other side was Ruby with a pleasant smile on her face and a tray of food in her hands.

"We're Undead. We don't really eat the same food you do... whatever it is you eat." Weiss told the smiling Therian on the other side of the window.

"Thought about that." Ruby answered sounding proud of herself. "So I got your partner some fresh and bloody meat because I noticed that a lot of your other friends also ate fresh and bloody meat. Just... not from animals." She gave a weak, unsettled laugh as the tree's roots opened up and made way for Ruby to slide a wooden plate with a slab of meat floating in blood through.

"Just the way I like it." Yang said eagerly and began tearing off tissues and sinews from the meat.

"And since I know you're a vampire," Ruby continued and slid a wooden bowl filled with a thick, red fluid into the gap. "I got you some blood. It's not human blood, though. It's deer. Is that okay?"

Weiss picked up the bowl and took a small sip. Deer blood did not taste as good as human blood did, but it was a substitution she was willing to make do with. A drop of red ran down her cheek and dribbled down her chin. "This will be fine. Thank you, Ruby."

Ruby's face lit up and she looked even prouder of herself when Weiss thanked her. The gap in the tree's roots closed and Ruby skipped away with the tray in her hands, humming along the way.

Yang swallowed another bite of the meat in her hand. "It's not man meat, but it's just as good."

"It sounds so wrong if you say it like that." Weiss said with disdain and took another sip of blood. In a matter of moments, she finished drinking the blood and she set the bowl near where the gap in the tree's roots used to be. With a lick of her lips, satisfied from her latest meal, she lay on the sleeping bag made of animal hide. It wasn't the soft, luxurious mattress she had in her even more luxurious bedroom in her home, but it was the closest thing to a bed she currently had.

"_At least it's not a coffin._" She kept repeating to herself. Even though it was normal for a vampire to sleep in a coffin, she found the tiny wooden boxes too cramped for her preference. She would choose a furry sleeping bag in an old tree over a velvet-lined coffin any time.

The sleeping bag was in the perfect place. No sunlight from the barred window shone upon her and she can continue her daytime slumber in peace. Closing her eyes, she drifted back to sleep, exhausted still from last night's events and from being woken up repetitively by Yang's failed attempts to destroy the tree from the inside.

Hours turned to days, and days turned to a week. So far, they still found no way to break free from a tree. Even the toilet hidden underground beneath the tree was bordered by its massive roots that were as unbreakable as its bark. As days passed, Weiss kept track of every Therianthrope to pass in front of their cell. Things like counting how many pass by to peek or how many times a certain character comes by. It was the only thing to do in the little cell other than watch Yang hopelessly try to escape.

Curiously enough, of all the Therians that crossed her sight, Ruby was their most frequent visitor. And unlike the others, she was the only one who stayed to chat. Not just once a day - often on multiple occasions in a single day and not just only when she stops by to give them food. No, Weiss noticed that Ruby went there when she had time to spare. Mostly, it was small talk - greetings, how-do-you-do's, and trivial topics about objects and entities immediately around them. It was Yang who usually entertained the girl's while Weiss herself met Ruby's attempts at conversation with a cold shoulder. If not that, then an annoyed remark telling her to go away - remarks met by a bad yet short glare from Yang. Despite those, however, that did not discourage Ruby to keep coming back and keep trying to talk to them. To her.

"Why don't you just give her a chance?" Weiss recalled Yang telling her one night. It has been a week and four days since they have been captured and Yang was obviously beginning to warm up to Ruby despite the fact that they're on opposing sides of an age-old conflict. Weiss could see the moon sitting high on the dark night sky outside the window, shattered yet brilliant. The howls of wolves in the distance could be heard and Weiss was certain one of them belonged to the girl with silver eyes. Yang was curled up in her own sleeping bed dozing off while Weiss herself, being nocturnal, remained awake. "She's trying to talk to you and say hi. I don't know... at least don't be an ice queen all the time." Yang's voice continued in Weiss' memory.

She had been reflecting on that since the night Yang told her that, and that was six nights ago.

* * *

Blake watched as Ruby skipped away from the cell with an empty tray in her hands.

"Ruby," she called and the black-and-red-haired girl turned to her with a proud gleam in her silver eyes. "How are they?" She asked, nodding in the direction of the cell where their Undead prisoners were kept. It was a tall tree with gnarled branches extending upward, its leaves a dark, poisonous-looking shade of purple that didn't blend in as much with the cherry-red leaves of the tress of the forest of Forever Fall. Its trunk was wide and hollow so it can accommodate up to two people inside. The tree itself was a special kind of tree Therianthropes have used for ages as a prison to house captured enemies or tribe members who broke the law and await the elders' judgment.

"Oh, they're fine. Just gave them something to eat." Ruby replied and showed the tray she was holding. "They seem to like it." She said with pride in her tone.

"What did you give them?"

"Some meat and some blood. They were from a deer, so no humans were hurt in the process."

"I see. Your dad was calling for you earlier."

"What did he say?"

"He just told me to go get you."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm off to go meet dad." Ruby dashed away at high speed that she knocked the brown, dry leaves on the ground into the air wherever she went while leaving rose petals in her wake.

Brushing leaves and rose petals off of her head and shoulders, Blake made her way to the tree where the Undead prisoners were kept and peered into the barred window. Weiss was asleep and facing away from the window on one of the sleeping bags. She could tell just by looking at how the white-haired girl's shoulders raised and lowered slowly and rhythmically. Yang sat against the wall with her eyes closed and a satisfied look on her face, blood dripping from her lips and coating her fingertips. Blake found that disturbing somewhat, even though she knew that Yang just ate a bloody venison. Blake watched a drop of blood that fell from Yang's chin even found its way to the blonde's bosom and continued to roll downward from there into her cleavage.

"My gauntlets are down here." Yang said and cracked one eye open as if playfully. Even flirty if Blake read Yang's expression correctly. The blonde's lips curled into a smirk. "Unless you really were staring at my boobs."

Blake flushed. Her attention was focused on the drop of blood that rolled down Yang's chest that she hadn't realized that she had been staring at the blonde's chest the entire time. "They're not even that impressive." She scoffed in an effort to hide her embarrassment. Yang still kept that smug smirk on her face.

"Then why were you staring?"

"I wasn't. There's blood on your left boob." Yang looked down and tried to wipe the trail of dried blood away with her finger. Her fingers were still bloody, however, and she only did but smear more red on her bosom. "I don't know if that was a mistake or you're putting war paint on your chest." Blake giggled as she rummaged in her pockets and pulled out a clean square of fabric which she offered to the blonde Undead.

"Thanks, kitty." Yang took the cloth and wiped the blood from her chest.

"You can keep it." Blake added. She did not want to keep a bloody rag. "I've got more of those anyway."

"So," Yang began as she finished up wiping blood from her fingertips. "What brings you here?"

"I was told to take you out for a walk." Blake told Yang as the latter neatly folded up the square of cloth and put it in her pocket.

"Oh, good. I've been _dying_ to stretch my legs." Yang laughed as she stood up and clutched the bars in the round window.

"Maybe I'll reconsider."

"I was just kidding." Yang put her forehead against the bars. "Let me out, please?"

"Fine." Blake sighed. "But there's a catch."

"There always is." Yang sighed and released her grip on the window's bars. "What is it?"

Blake held up a leather collar with a buckle made of pure silver. The lustrous metal gleamed when the sunlight struck it and the runes inscribed along it seemed to shine weakly with a faint, golden glow. Blake noticed Yang inch backward when she showed her the collar.

"Silver, huh?" Yang asked, gaze fixed on the collar. "Holy silver. Beautiful. You sure do know how to make a girl weak in the knees."

"That's the catch."

"I suppose it's better than having to sit in here and inhale stale tree air. Collar me."

Blake stepped forward and put her arms into the gaps between the bars to secure the collar around the blonde's neck. Then the tree's bark - as if it were alive and sentient - parted open to make way for Yang to exit. Blake could see that the blonde's knees were shaking. The sanctified collar was doing its work.

"Can't even throw a punch strong enough to knock your teeth out of your skull," said Yang as she shakily walked out of the tree. The bark closed up behind her as she left and Yang leaned against it. "Finally, fresh air. I was getting tired of smelling wood and mushrooms. Why let me out, huh?"

Blake remembered the meeting held at the village's great hall a few days earlier. There, they discussed the matter of having to defend against another Undead attack like that of last night's as well as what to do with their prisoners of war. Blake was an attendee and so was Ruby, since the village elders called for them for being the ones to capture Weiss and Yang. They thought it was only right that they have the final say on what measures were going to be taken about the two Undead girls.

"_We could always send them back to the grave._" Blake remembered Qrow suggesting. As usual, he took a swig every now and then from the flask he always carried with himself.

"_But they could be useful to us._" Blake suggested in return. "_We have two sentient Undead in captivity. We could get the information we need to defend ourselves from them._"

"_She has a point." _Taiyang replied. "_But how?_"

"_Torture?_" Qrow suggested and Blake remembered seeing one of the elders shaking his head in disapproval out of the corner of her eye.

"_Torture is against our ways._" She remembered the same elder saying. "_We must find another way to interrogate our prisoners._"

"_I doubt they'll readily hand us their plans._"

"_Any suggestions, then?_" Taiyang asked.

"_We could play good cop, bad cop._" Qrow suggested once again. "_I could be the good cop, and Raven could be the bad cop._"

"_Why am I the bad cop?_" Raven retorted.

"_These two are the same Undead who organized the attack against us._" Taiyang pointed out. "_I doubt that'll work. Anything else?_"

"_We could get them to trust us._" Ruby spoke up, which surprised Blake a bit because Ruby did not like meetings - actually speaking up in one even less. "_Then get them to tell us what they know._"

"_It might not work._" One of the elders said.

"_Right now, it sounds like our best option._" Blake replied. "_I doubt they will respond well in a formal interrogation, so it might be efficient to have them tell us their plans themselves._"

"_Sounds like genius to me._" Taiyang praised and placed his palms on the table.

"_I'm a genius._" Ruby said proudly.

"_But how are we going to do just that?_" Qrow questioned. "_We've been enemies for centuries. I doubt they'll just suddenly trust us._"

"_Thought of that too._" Ruby said with confidence and cleared her throat. "_Here's how..._"

Blake stared Yang in her lilac eyes as the blonde awaited an answer. "I just thought it wouldn't do you well to just sit around in there. You still have to get out a bit every now and then." Blake answered and Yang gave an small sideways nod.

"I _am _an outdoors-y person." Yang replied and tugged at the leather collar. She obviously didn't have enough strength to break through it, even though Blake witnessed the blonde carry an entire log, punch through a tree, and walk through fire in their previous fights. The silver was weakening her. "Why the holy stuff, though?"

"It's a precaution. So you don't suddenly run off and kill us all."

"Fair point." Yang flashed a grin and rubbed her head. "So, why take me out on a trip instead of sleeping beauty over there?"

"_Blake, you get Yang to tell you everything she knows._" Ruby's voice echoed in Blake's head. "_She's tried to ask you out that night they got captured, so maybe... you can use that to your advantage?_"

"_Woo the zombie._" Qrow's laugh still sounded fresh in Blake's memory. It was almost as if it was mocking her somehow. "_Classic._"

"Is this because I tried to ask you out that night?" Yang continued and Blake snapped out of her reminiscing.

"No..."

"It is, isn't it?" The same smug smirk on Yang's face a few moments earlier reappeared. "I asked you out and you paused to consider..."

"I wasn't considering anything." Blake retorted and cleared her throat. "I was just... sleep-deprived. That, and the fumes were getting to me."

"Not yourself when you're lacking sleep, huh?" Yang laughed and looked over her shoulder and into the tree. "Weiss there's like you - she loses her normal Schnee composure when she hasn't had her beauty sleep. She gets cranky too if you interrupt her while she's dozing off. So, where's the cat dragging me?"

"There's a clearing just southwest of here." Blake said and began walking southwest. "We could have a cup of tea there."

"I'm not really much of a tea person." Yang replied as she followed Blake. "You could go ask Weiss about that. She's the one who likes tea. I would kill for a Strawberry Sunrise right about now, though."

"We have a pub here. They serve those there from time to time."

"Sounds like my kind of place."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Blake changed her course and headed for the village's tavern: a rectangular hut with a cobblestone foundation and railings of tightly-spaced bamboo instead of walls, making it open on the sides and giving it an open-air appearance similar to a rectangular gazebo. Its flat roof was made of bamboo rods supported by evenly-spaced dark, wooden planks held up by columns of the same wood that rose from the structure's sides. Only the pub's kitchen was not as open as the rest of the building. Its bamboo walls rose to the roof unlike the railings that enclosed the rest of the pub's space and smoke rose from the smokestack that poked out of its roof. "The Pink Sloth. The person who runs it named it after his partner."

"Who turns into a sloth." Yang added.

Blake climbed the two wooden steps into the pub and looked around. There were booths set in the pub's sides, leaving a wide aisle in the middle with a bar at the opposite end. The door to the kitchen was behind it. She walked up to the bar and Lie Ren, the bartender and proprietor of the pub, looked up at her as he was wiping metal tankards. "Hello, Blake." He said as he put down the tankard and wiped his hands on his apron. It was a pink apron with the words '_PLEASE DO NOTHING TO THE COOK' _written on it. "You don't usually come here for breakfast."

"I'm just showing her the village." Blake nodded at Yang and sat on one of the wooden bar stools. Yang sat on the stool beside her.

Ren eyed Yang cautiously. "I see. Letting her out for a while?"

"Yeah." Blake turned to Yang. "This is Ren. He's the proprietor, bartender, and cook of the pub."

"Anything I can get for you?" Ren asked, looking at Yang.

"Oh, uh, a strawberry sunrise. No ice. With one of those little umbrellas." Yang answered.

With a small nod, Ren took a bottle from the shelves behind his bar and mixed Yang's drink. He then passed Yang a small glass filled with a strawberry-red liquid and put a small, yellow umbrella in the glass.

"Ren!" A girl's voice called from the kitchen and Ren turned his head just as Nora poked her head out of the doorway with a red substance covering her mouth. "We're out of syrup!"

"Nora..." Ren sighed and his lips curled slightly. "I'll just get more later."

"Yay!" Nora exclaimed and retreated to the kitchen.

"I guess that means I have to collect some red sap later." Ren sighed and continued wiping tankards.

"So," Yang began and sipped the strawberry sunrise. "Why let me out?"

"Since you will be with us for a while, I just thought that it would be a good time to get to know you." Blake answered.

"Okay, then. This reminds me of those skeletons back in the manor." Yang took a sip of her drink. "There's a tavern of sorts in the labyrinth under the place."

"There's a labyrinth under your manor?"

"Yeah. It's got a ton of cisterns, making the entire manor - top and bottom - almost like a little city on its own. In one of those cisterns was that tavern I was talking about and I met this skeleton there. Stout guy. Wears a hoodie, shorts, and fuzzy slippers all the time. Some good food and a few bad jokes and we were quick friends. Met his brother too at his place. Tall, lanky skeleton. He cooks, but I don't have the heart to tell him what I really think of his pasta. I just can't bear to break his heart by telling him that his spaghetti is... indescribable. _Spathetic._" Yang laughed and cleared her throat. "He's got a lot to learn, honestly. "

"They're your friends there?"

"Yeah." Yang took another sip of her drink. "I could trust those guys because, well, we're all the same. Undead. Why would they have intentions other than exchange bad knock-knock jokes or cook pasta?" Blake was nervously tapping her fingers on the counter and she watched Ren subtly inch away a bit from the corner of her eye. "So, be honest with me, Blake..." Yang continued and took a sip of her strawberry sunrise. "I really don't get your intentions. Why did you really take me out?"

"As I said. So I could make your acquaintance."

"No, really." Yang pressed and took another sip. "Ruby's been talking to us for the past few days and I would understand if she's the one sitting where you are right now. But you, you're talking to me only now. You're trying to get something out of me, aren't you?"

"Something like?"

"Trust? Information? I'm surprised none of you are making an effort to interrogate us and now this. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to play the good cop on me."

"_Do anything to get to her, Blake._" Ruby's voice once again echoed in Blake's head. "_Just don't let her catch onto our plans._"

"Now that you're going to be spending a bit of time in there, I thought it might be a good time to get acquainted with each other." Blake answered and stopped tapping on the counter.

"Then why talk to me only now?"

"I had a lot to think about. How many we lost in that battle."

"Then you have a lot of reason to not take me here."

"But I still chose to. I just wanted to see if we could make amends."

"No, really. After we tried to kill each other in that siege? After you saw how many died by my hand? I doubt that. You're trying to get me to tell you what we're going to do next."

Blake's mind returned to the events that transpired a few nights prior: the siege. She could remember a everything that happened then in extreme detail - a talent she developed from reading a lot of books that demanded a huge amount of imagination. The inferno that incinerated that part of the forest, the black plumes of smoke that rose into the air, the screams and battle cries from both sides as the battle raged on, and Yang. The blonde standing right in front of her, gauntlets gleaming from the yellow-orange light of the fires around them, the beads of sweat on her face and arms giving her a different, more determined appearance in the lighting, her golden locks looking like they were part of the inferno when her eyes turned red before they crossed fists that night. Despite all that, however, she still had the audacity to joke around. Even though her battle-ready face showed an intent to kill, she still tried to invite her opponent to a date. Blake remembered what ran through her head when the blonde made that offer even if her tone was joking: like she knew who that girl was even though they only met for the second time, like they already met, like they were friends in a different life. The way Yang fought, spoke, and joked made Blake feel as if she was in her youth again.

It made her feel as if she can be comfortable around Yang.

Blake had been reflecting on that since the night they first faced each other in combat and she still hasn't explained why she felt that way.

"Hello!" Yang chimed in a cheerful voice and Blake snapped out of her stupor.

"Oh, uh, where were we?"

"I was asking you why you let me out." Yang had a new glass of strawberry sunrise in her hand, this time with a pink umbrella. "Busy working out an excuse?"

"Reminiscing. That fight."

"What of it?"

"Remember what you said to distract me?"

"Yeah." Yang took another sip of strawberry sunrise.

"Did you really mean it?" Blake asked and Yang choked audibly.

"Maybe..." Yang answered in a low, almost shy tone. "Maybe someday."

"Just asking. I may or may not have been thinking of that before letting you out." Blake cleared her throat nervously and noticed that Yang's glass was empty. "Want another one?"

"I'm good." Yang answered with a small nod.

Blake rummaged in her pockets and pulled out two silver pieces which she slid across the bar counter toward Ren. "I'm paying for her." Ren took the pieces, slid them into his pocket, and continued wiping tankards.

"Got somewhere else you want to take me?" Yang asked as she stood up and helped Blake to her feet. Even though she was evidently weakened by the silver around her neck, she still had enough energy to pull Blake up, and that surprised the latter.

"I can't think of anywhere else. Unless there's something in the village you want to get a look at."

"How about that clearing you mentioned?"

"Follow me." Blake made her way out of the pub and waved goodbye to Ren, who waved his hand in return. Yang followed behind her as she traced the path she always took when she wanted to go to the one place outside the village that she can sit and think or just rest and read a book or two. As she continued her walk, the village behind them disappeared into the foliage and dense forestry. After a while, the trees were replaced by bamboo and a clearing opened before them, a single rock in the middle of a field of red leaves and bamboo shoots. An unlit fire pit with a kettle hanging from a spit above it sat close to the rock, and a knapsack leaned against the boulder.

"So this is it, huh?" Yang asked as she looked around.

"I usually come here to think or just rest or read. It's a quiet place. I could go to the library to do the same, but I like it here more." Blake answered and sat on the rock in the middle, patting the space beside her, inviting Yang to sit. "I was going to brew tea, but you're not a tea person as you told me earlier."

Yang took a seat beside Blake and stared at the sky. Blake could hear the blonde's quiet, rhythmic breathing despite the slightly louder occasional chirping of birds or rustling of leaves. "This is a nice spot. Kind of a surprise to me that there's no one else here."

"Not a lot of people know about this place, and I'm the only one who actually likes sitting here to think."

Yang hummed a song lightly. Blake recognized bits of the tune, but she couldn't put her finger on the words to the song, even though she felt as if she was supposed to know its lyrics. "That siege..." Yang began.

"Hm?"

"There was supposed to be more to it."

"More to it? What does that mean?"

"Had the plan gone off without a hitch, I wouldn't be here right now. We were supposed to bring the entire barrier down instead of make a hole in it for ten minutes."

"There's more to the plan?" Blake pressed.

"A lot more. But I'm not telling you those details. Too sesitive. Unless... you can pry them out of me." Yang stared at her own hands and flexed her fingers. "Sometimes, I regret not running away when the breach was starting to close up, but then again, call it strange, but I feel like I can be comfortable here. It's funny. Me, Undead, feeling at home in Therianthrope territory." Yang got up to her feet and brushed her backside. "I think I'm ready to go back to the tree now. I've had my fill of the outdoors and this collar. I feel as if I'm going to collapse." She gave a weak, shaky laugh.

Blake nodded and stood up. "Let's get you back to your cell. Then I'll take off the collar." She then led Yang back to the village, giving the clearing one more look. She had a lot of things to ponder on later.

* * *

"Get up, Weiss!" Ruby called cheerfully to the girl sleeping in the tree. The snowy vampire gave no her no response. She just shrugged and snuggled closer to the wall. "Weiss!" Ruby tried again. Still no response from the vampire. Miffed, Ruby put a whistle to her lips and blew a high, sharp note that caused a flock of birds flying from the trees cawing and squawking. She noticed that her uncle Qrow was among the birds that flew away in a panic. Weiss shot upright and looked around with panicked eyes. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Why are you still sleeping, Weiss? It's morning!"

"Exactly." Weiss returned to lying down on the sleeping bag. "I sleep in the morning. And now I can't do that because now you interrupted my sleep."

"Oh. Sorry." Ruby twiddled her fingers shyly and peeked into the window again. "But now that you're awake, we can officially begin our first order of business."

"Excuse me?"

Ruby gave her a bright grin and brought up a collar with a silver buckle. The same collar that Yatsuhashi, their blacksmith, made and Velvet enchanted to bolster their effect in weakening Undead. Ruby and Blake had to wait a bit before they received them though, since Coco had a few complaints about the implements' aesthetic impact. "I get to let you out!" Ruby cheered.

"Finally." Weiss stood up and pointed at the object in Ruby's hand. "What is that?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, this?" Ruby glanced at the collar. "It's a collar. It's got holy silver on it so you wouldn't go all crazy and kill everyone in sight while your outside as a precaution, though."

"No way I'm putting that around my neck." Weiss scoffed and crossed her arms. "Unlike you, I'm no dog." She then turned on her heel and faced away from Ruby.

"But, you'll have to put it on before I let you out..." Ruby pouted.

"No." Weiss replied and looked over her shoulder. "I'm not... going to. Don't make that face."

Ruby continued her pouting.

"Come on, Ruby. You're better than this." Weiss said and after a time of looking into the Therian girl's face, she sighed. She stuck out her arm between the window bars. "Fine. But put it on my wrist."

Ruby giggled in triumph and secured the band around Weiss' wrist. The vampire's wrist was small and her skin was as cold as ice, just like the first time they met and Weiss was knocked out by a log. She recognized that icy coldness from that moment - when Weiss placed a quick peck on her cheek. "All done!" Ruby announced when she finished her task. Coco did a good job of poking some holes in the strap to make it so that it also fits wrists.

"Okay," Weiss began and Ruby could see that she was starting to buckle. Maybe the silver was too much for her, Ruby thought. "Let me out now. I'm getting tired of the atmosphere in here."

"Alright. Open Sesame!"

The tree's bark parted to make way for Weiss to come out. She took wobbly steps as she walked out of the tree and the bark closed up behind her when she finally exited. "Whoa, steady..." Ruby tried to help Weiss on her keep herself on her feet, and it worked for the first few steps outside - until Weiss pulled her arms free of Ruby's grip.

"I can walk by myself now, thank you very much." She said in the same snooty tone she always had when Ruby tried to talk to her for the past days. "Now. Where are you taking me? To be interrogated?"

"Uh, no! No interrogation!" Ruby answered and gave Weiss another bright grin. "We could go sightseeing! Get you some fresh air from the great outdoors after sitting around in an old tree for weeks."

"That's... a plausible idea." Weiss answered as she straightened her posture and brushed dust from her skirt. As she was doing so, the clouds parted and the light of the morning sun shone through the treetops, striking the back of Weiss' hand on its way to the ground. The pale skin on her hand turned red in an instant and even seemed to emit smoke. "Ow!" She exclaimed and retracted her hand. She took a few steps back into the shade of the prison tree, blowing gently where her skin reddened.

"What's wrong?" Ruby stepped forward and asked. She gazed with concern on Weiss' hand and cringed for it seemed to be a very painful burn.

"The sun is... not very good for my skin, if you know what I mean." Weiss answered and continued cradling her burnt hand. "Can you please get me an umbrella? If we're going sightseeing, then I would as much as possible avoid the sun."

"Don't move an inch." Ruby told Weiss and dashed off to her house as fast as she could. Her house looked a lot like the other houses in the village. It was made in the shape of an "L" and had a cobblestone foundation that raised it a few inches off the ground. Its walls were made of vertical wooden planks and a thick log in each of the house's corners. Its gable roof was thatched and a smokestack poked out of its center. No smoke meant no fire in the fireplace, which sequentially meant that there was no one present. Her dad must have been out hunting or still being busy in the village's great hall in discussion with the elders. She unlocked the door, swiped an umbrella from the umbrella rack mounted on the wall through the small space in the ajar doorway, and locked it shut again before dashing back to where Weiss was. By the time she got there, Weiss was just removing rose petals from her head and shoulders. "Got you an umbrella." She announced and Weiss looked up, light blue eyes meeting silver.

"That was fast." Weiss said and Ruby offered her the umbrella like how one offers a knight a sword. Weiss took the umbrella and opened it above her. "Now at least the problem of direct sunlight is solved." Her gaze returned to Ruby and the latter stared at Weiss' icy blue eyes as if she found them captivating somehow. "What are you staring at?"

"_You gotta agree with me, though._" Qrow's voice resonated inside Ruby's head. She recalled a conversation they had a day after Weiss and Yang's capture. For what reasons, she did not know, however. Qrow just pulled her aside after she gave the Undead girls food. "_Eyes are a girl's prettiest parts. Well, aside from their..._"

_"No, uncle Qrow! That's gross!_" Ruby shook her head and made a disgusted sound before Qrow could even finish his sentence.

Qrow chuckled. "_Well, let me give you some advice on girls, then._"

"_What do you know about girls?_"

"_I know a lot about wooing them._"

"_Oh yeah, old man?_"

"_I got a lot of inappropriate stories to back that up. And don't call me old._"

"_Gross..._"

"_Don't worry your fluffy butt off, Ruby. I'm not going to tell you how to get some in no time. That's for when you're older._" Qrow pat Ruby's head and got on one knee. "_You want to get Weiss on your side? She's a Schnee, so expect her to be all icy on you._"

"_How would you know how a Schnee talks?_"

"_I've had a few, uh, run-ins with a Schnee in the past. But that doesn't matter. Listen, listen... I know her type. The rich, snooty, and stuck-up type. Best way to get through to them? Stick around even if your presence annoys them. Learned that through personal experience._"

"_You tried to flirt with a Schnee?_"

"_No. In fact, if you ever mention that I knew a Schnee, I will deny it._" Qrow got on his feet and gave Ruby a fist bump. "_Now get going, kid. I've got somewhere to be._" With that, Qrow changed into a bird and flew off.

"Hello? Earth to Ruby." Weiss called and Ruby shook her head. She realized that while she was preoccupied with her thoughts, she had been staring too much at Weiss' eyes. There was already a small patch of pink forming on the vampire's cheeks that stood out against her pallor.

"Oh. Sorry. Just remembering something my uncle told me." Ruby shook her head one more time. "So, where do you want to go?"

"Before we go, I just want to say something."

"Hm?"

Weiss avoided eye contact and stared at the ground as if there was something interesting buried in the soil. "Look, I'm sorry for how I acted those past few weeks. I guess that I was just infuriated that my plans didn't go right."

"Nah, it's okay. I forgive you. I still hope we could be buds, y'know."

"Friends? Right after we tried to kill each other weeks ago?" Weiss sighed and looked Ruby in the eye. "Any other person I know would harbor resentment towards me for that, but you... you don't. I can see it in your eyes. Strange. Why _is_ that?"

The memory of the siege was still fresh in Ruby's mind. The memorial services that followed after Yang and Weiss' capture even more so. Some of the bodies they buried had parts ripped off of their persons and it was sickening for Ruby to remember how the breach zone looked like that night. Despite what she saw, however, she held little resentment for Weiss. She knew that their races were ancient foes, and yet, she didn't feel as if she had any desire to tear the vampire beside her to shreds even if she could in Weiss' current state.

It was as if she picked up something from the fight they had weeks before. It was as if she could tell that Weiss was holding back by choice, that she was trying to force herself to hurt Ruby. She saw it in how Weiss manuevered that night. A distinct lack of grace and skill in evasion, attempts to subdue her instead of deliver lethal blows, and a certain hesitation in her eyes even though the fire made her deadly grin look sinister enough.

Ruby just couldn't find the heart to hate someone who moved as if she were... forced.

"I really don't care about that." Ruby answered walked up to her side.

"No?"

"Nope."

"Why not? You have every reason to hate me right now."

"Yeah, but I also choose not to. It really doesn't do well to dwell on that stuff."

"You're being... extraordinarily forgiving towards someone who tried to cut your head off. Am I missing something here?"

Let me show you something." Ruby grabbed Weiss by the wrist and began dragging her somewhere. Surprisingly enough for her, there was little resistance as she moved forward. It could either be that Weiss was too weak to resist, or that she was willingly going with her. They reached a field where the trees had a darker coloration in comparison to most of the trees in the forest that had cherry-red leaves. These trees had a deeper shade of crimson to their leaves, and a darker, more gnarled bark. These trees were evenly spaced apart, and there were some empty spots between the trees every now and then.

"More trees?"

"Not just trees... this is where we bury our dead." Ruby explained and dragged Weiss further in. She glanced at the carvings on the stone slabs at the base of each tree: a name, a symbol, and an age. "It's kind of a tradition to plant a seed over where we bury someone."

"Why do that?"

"The elders told me that it symbolizes rebirth. New life from death. Here." Ruby stopped in front of an empty patch of land with mounds of soil spaced evenly apart, each mound accompanied by a tombstone. Some had small leaves poking out of the ground, some were still just mounds of loam. "These were the most recent ones. From that fight. Your troops put a lot of them there."

"Why are you showing me this?"

"It doesn't do me well to dwell on stuff like this. I could hate you for doing this to so many of us, but that wouldn't really be healthy, would it?" Ruby got on her knees and inspected the leaves of a sprout poking out of the ground. "I chose not to be mad and I still believe in second chances."

"Even though I was the one who gave the command that did... _this_?" Weiss' voice was quieter now. Ruby could hear the slight shift in the vampire's tone.

"Well, yeah. That's why I'm going to try to be a friend to you. There's still a chance to start over, right?"

"But why do that? Our races have been enemies for millennia."

"Maybe, but remember that night you got hit by a log and I had to tend to your wounds?"

"What of it?"

Ruby turned to look at Weiss' icy blue eyes and in there she found that girl she met that night in a cave following a brief encounter. "I saw someone else back then. Not an enemy. I really want to meet that Weiss again."

Weiss was silent, and the only sound Ruby can hear was the soft breeze blowing through the treetops, making the forest sound like a sea. "You really want to become friends with me?" Weiss finally spoke up after a while, and Ruby gave her a quick nod. "Okay, fine. Annoying as you are, I guess we could become friends."

Ruby jumped with joy and laughed in triumph. "Yay! So, what do we get to do now as friends, huh? Board game? Paint each other's nails and try on clothes? Oh! Window shopping!"

"Okay, slow down, dolt." Weiss took a deep breath. "Right now, I really would like to go somewhere else. Somewhere windy, preferrably. I'm... uncomfortable here and I really want to breathe in something that isn't tree-scented."

"You got it! I know a spot. Let's go!" Ruby took Weiss by her wrist again as she dragged her along a cobble path that led to an upward slope devoid of trees. She helped Weiss ascend the side of the hill since Weiss was still obviously weakened by the effects of the silver around her other wrist and her steps were still wobbly. Finally, they reached the top of the hill and Ruby ran to the center and sat on the grass that danced in rhythm to the gentle breeze that blew on its surface. She pat the ground beside her and Weiss took her seat there.

"This is... a nice place." Weiss commented as she looked around. "It's like looking out on a sea of red leaves."

"Funny you said sea."

"Why?"

"Listen." Ruby said and went quiet. After a while, the breeze blew slightly stronger across the leaves of the trees, and the rustling sounds that the leaves made as the wind passed through them resembled the sound of a calm seaside. "Ever wondered why they say 'sea' of trees? There you go."

"I guess I see why now. I don't get to enjoy views like this back in the manor."

"What's your place like?"

"Big and luxurious." Weiss yawned and rubbed her eyes. "I can't even remember the size of the estate, but the manor in its center is an enormous one fitted with everything that a person with an equally luxurious lifestyle can indulge in for centuries."

"Sounds grand."

"It is. But sometimes, it feels cramped in there." Weiss yawned again.

"Are you getting tired?"

"Well, my sleep was interrupted and I'm nocturnal, so what do you think?" Weiss answered, her tone getting sleepier by the moment. "Daylight doesn't do my eyes well... and I can barely keep myself up with this silver..." She gave a big yawn and smacked her lips. "So... it really would be nice... if I could just go back to sleep... in that tree..." With that, her eyelids drooped shut and her head slumped against Ruby's shoulder, snoring lightly.

Ruby took the umbrella from Weiss' hands and held it above her so that the sunlight wouldn't hit the vampire's skin. "I'll get you back there later. Wouldn't want to disturb your sleep again."

* * *

**A/N: I am going to tear off Mercury's fake legs and beat him with them for doing that to Yang.**

***ahem* Anyway, gone for three months again. I really have a knack for not updating as much as I would like, don't I? Nyeh heh heh... school and extracurriculars are taking up my time, so I don't write as much as I would like. I'm not dropping the story, though. No way. Nope. Guess that means I broke my promise when I said I would try to not have unnanounced hiatuses... college amirite**

**Well, that's it for this chapter. Finally got in some Ruby/Weiss and Blake/Yang interactions that don't involve fight scenes. *awkward laugh* Thanks for keeping subscribed to this ol' story despite being stagnant for **_**months**_**. I appreciate you guys sticking around, really I do. So, see you in the next chapter, I guess.**

**P.S. The girl mentioned in this chapter's first parts - the one with black hair and azure eyes - was Hotaru Sakurai, the OC of a friend of mine. I'm sure she's reading this right now... Hi animage-k6!**


	10. not an update sorry

I'm planning to rewrite Blood Moon and reupload it in Wattpad when it's done.

Hence, the copy here will be discontinued.

New things to add to the plot kind of threw off my original concept for this story, so, yeah..

sorry.

I will post a wattpad link here when it's ready though.

Almost forgot about AO3. Thanks for reminding me, Star.

Or maybe I'll replace the chapters here once I rewrite everything. That sounds like a better idea, yes...


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